MASTER 

NEGA  TIVE 
NO  .92-80603 


MICROFILMED  1992 
COL UMBL\  UNIVERSITY  LIBRARIES/NEW  YORK 


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foundations  of  Western  Civilization  Preservation  Project" 


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AUTHOR: 


[SMEDLEY,  EDWARD] 


TITLE: 


SKETCHES  FROM 

VENETIAN  HISTORY 

PLACE: 

NEW  YORK 

DA  TE : 

1832 


COLUMBIA  UNIVERSITY  LIBRARIES 
PRESERVATION  DEPARTMENT 

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N».  XLIII. 


SKETCHES 


FROM 


VENETIAN    HISTORY. 


WITH   ENGRAVINGS. 
IN    TWO    VOLUMES. 

VOL.  I. 


J.  &  J.  HARPER,  8^  CLIFF  STREET. 

Stereotype  Edition. 

1832. 


m 


SHERMAN  CLARKE 

7Ae  Gift  ofJeanVance  Clarke. 

THE 

UNIVERSITY /ROCHESTER 

LIBRARY- 


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■ 


HARPER'S  FAMILY  LIBRARY. 


Boi)ks  that  yov.  may  carry  to  the  fire,  ami  hold  readily  in  your  hand, 
are  the  mo^t  useful  <i/'ter  all.  A  ?naii  will  of  tea  look  at  thtnu  and  ht 
*tmpttd  to  ^o  oil,  when  he  would  have  been  frightened  at  book:)  (fa  larger 
vise,  and  of  a  more  erudite  appearance" — Dr.  Juunson. 


TiiK  propriotors  of  the  Family  Library  feci  themselves  stimulated  to 
increased  exertions  by  the  distinguished  favour  with  which  it  has  already 
been  received 

The  volumes  now  before  the  public  may  be  confidently  appealed  to 
as  proofs  of  zeal  on  the  part  of  tlie  publishers  to  present  to  their  readers 
a  series  of  productions,  which,  as  they  are  connected,  not  with  ephemeral, 
Ijut  with  permanent  subjects,  may,  years  hence  as  well  as  now,  be  eou 
suited  for  lively  amusement  as  well  as  solid  instruction. 

To  render  this  Library  still  more  worthy  of  paironajie,  the  proprie- 
tors propose  incorporating  in  it  such  works  of  interest  and  value  as 
may  ai)pear  in  the  various  Libraries  and  Misccllanitis  now  preparing  in 
Kurope,  particularly  the  "  National"  and  the  "  Edinburgh  Cabmef  Libra 
ries.  All  these  jjrodujtions,  as  they  emanate  from  the  press,  will  be 
submitted  to  a  committee  of  literary  <£fntlenien  for  inspection  ;  and  none 
will  be  reprinted  but  such  as  shall  be  found  calculated  to  sustain  the 
exalted  character  which  this  Library  lias  already  acquired. 

Several  well-known  authors  have  biien  engajred  to  prepare  for  it  original 
works  of  an  American  character,  on  History,  liiography.  Travels,  &.c.  &,r, 

Kverydi:?tinct  subject  will  in  g(rneral  be  comprehended  in  one  volume, 
or  at  most  in  three  volumes,  wliich  may  tbrm  either  a  j)ortion  of  the 
series  or  a  complete  work  by  itself;  and  each  volume  will  be  ombellisheU 
with  appropriate  engravings. 

The  entire  series  will  be  the  production  of  authors  of  eminence,  who 
have  actjuired  celebrity  by  their  literary  labours,  and  whose  names,  as 
they  appear  in  succession,  will  afford  the  surest  guarantee  to  the  public 
for  the  satisfactory  manner  in  which  the  subjects  will  be  treated. 

Such  is  the  plan  by  which  it  is  intended  to  tbrm  an  American  Family 
Library,  comprising  all  tliat  is  valuable  in  those  branches  of  knowledge 
which  most  hapi)ily  unite  entertainment  with  instruction.  The  utmost 
care  will  be  taken,  not  only  to  exclude  whatever  can  have  an  injurious 
influence  on  the  mind,  but  to  embrace  every  thing  calculated  lo  streiigtheu 
the  best  and  most  salutary  impressions. 

With  these  arrangements  and  facilities,  the  publishers  flatter  them- 
selves that  tliey  shall  be  able  to  present  to  their  fellow-citizens  a  work 
of  unparalleled  merit  and  cheapness,  embracing  subjects  adajtted  to  ali 
classes  of  readers,  and  forming  a  body  of  literature  deserving  the  praise 
of  having  instructed  many,  and  amused  all ;  and  above  every  other  spe- 
cies of  eulogy,  of  being  fit  to  be  introduced,  without  reserve  or  exception, 
by  the  father  of  a  family  to  the  domestic  circle.  Meanwhile,  the  vei  y  low 
price  at  which  it  is  charged  renders  more  extensive  patronage  necessary 
for  its  supi>ort  and  pro.secution.  Jhe  immediate  encouragement,  there- 
fore, of  those  who  approve  its  plan  and  execution  is  respectfully  solicited. 
The  work  m:ty  be  oltUiined  in  complete  sets,  or  in  separate  numbers, 
from  the  pnucipal  book^sellcrs  throughout  the  United  States. 


i 


]ifirom7nfinJ.nfinnc  nf  /J,ry    J^^*v.V7w    r,7.^. 


Recommendations  of  the  Family  Library. 

TiiK  following  opinions,  selected  Oom  Jilslilv  respectable  Journals  will 
enable  those  who  are  uiiaaiuaiiile.l  willi  theFamilv  Library  to  Jbrm  an 
estimate  of  its  merits.  Numerous  other  notices,  equallv  favourable  and 
from  sources  equally  res])ectable,  might  be  presented  if  deemed  necessary. 

•-  n  "^^^/'"^l^i'^'  I^ibrary.-A  very  excellent,  and  always  entertaining  m^- 
cellany."— £rf;w/>u?'^A/:f:rif»',.Yo.  103.  i<i"iiu^  irns 

"  The  Family  Library.~We  think  this  series  of  books  entitled  to  the 
extensive  patronage  they  have  received  from  the  i.ubliir.  Tjie  snbiects 
selected  are,  generally,  both  useful  and  interesting  in  themselves,  and  arc 
treated  ma  jiopular  and  agreeable  manner  :  the  style  is  clear,  easy  ai  d 
flowing  adapted  to  the  taste  of  general  readers,  for  whom  the  books  are 
designed.  1  he  writers  are  mostly  men  of  high  rank  in  the  literary  world 
and  aj)pear  to  possess  the  happy  talent  of  blending  instruction  w  t h 
anriusement.  . .  We  hesit,ate  not  to  commend  it  to  the  public  as  a  vahSo 
series  of  works,  and  worthy  a  j.Iaco  in  every  gentleman's  library.''_alS 
zine  of  Useful  and  Entertaining  Knoioltdge.  ^ 

"We  take  the  opportunity  again  to  recommend  this  valuable  series  of 
vo  uines  to  the  public  patronace.    We  know  of  no  mode  in  which  so  rnuch 

sS"^T5i;;;?^.;sr'' ''  '^ '''-'  ^ '''''  ^^  ^" «»-  ^-'^'' 

"The  Family  Library  should  be  in  the  hands  of  everj-  person     Thus 
far  it  has  treated  ot  t^ubjects  inierosting  to  aU,  condensed  in  a  persnrcuous 

and  agreeable  style We  have  so  repeatedly  spoken  of  the  ntS  of  ^ho 

design  of  this  work,  and  of  the  able  manner  inVlm-h  it  is  edited  that    n 
Ins  occasion  we  will  only  rej.eat  our  conviction,  that  it  is  wo  ,   v  a  S^^^^^^ 
in  every  library  in  the  country,  a.ul  will  j.rove  one  of  the  mos  ti  sefu  las 
IS  one  of  the  nu.st  mteres.ing  ].hbIications  which  has  over  liued  f  om 
the  American  press.»-.Y.  Y.  Courier  ^-  Enquirer.  "' 

"It  isneedles.s  at  this  late  period  to  Commend  to  public  attention  nn.l 
encouragement  the  collection  of  .ielighiful  works  noi  in  a  cours   of  nub 
hcation  under  the  appropriate  title  of  the  Family  Library  "-^^1^ 
ning  Journal.  ^  x.iw.ai^.      jv.  y.  ±,ve 

"We  have  rope-atedly  expressed  our  unwavering  confidence  in  tl.o 
men  s  ot  this  valualile  series  of  jwpular  and  ins  rut-tivp  hn  flf^     a 
FamilyLibraryhas  now  reached  its  ^ixleei.ihnnSrwi^^^^^^  ^•*"' 

favour  of  the  enlightened  I^^^^n.:^'^:^^^^^^^^^^^ 
<me  dussentmg  voice  anriong  the  periodical  and  newspaper  Uh^her^wl. 
F^lmv'?'!!' "'^^  ""^'^  ^"^  applauded  the  ,,lan  and\he  exc"     Ln  o^^^^ 

composition."-T//.  CaS ^ ^l^^^^l^'^  •'"^^^"'^'^  ""^  tasteful  ni 
"The  names  of  the  writers  emnloved  arp  n  ciim«;«w  .     , 

^.eritoftheFamilyLlbrary^vlllsuf^;odSe^"-:^^^^ 
"The  Family  Library  is  a  .-ollection  which  should  be  sourn    M^.. 

every  one  desirous  of  i)rocurincr  tlie  most  vnhMh!?  nf ,     ^  ,  ^^^^  ^'^ 

cheapest  and  most  convenient  ?b™"-irrS;^ysS^  ^"  'ho 

of  all  enlightened  communiiS'      he  cStrv      l^^fr.^^^ 

promises  to  be  a  tiiost  useful  j^id  chei  ^PnnS;.    I  u  ^'^""'y  Library 

events  of  proli^ne.  ancient  and  mS  Kn    ^  ''V?'  "'ost  m.,)ortant 

well  conducted,  and  i)ublished  w   h  «m.i.  Lr    ^ ^  '"'^^'"''^  *"'  volumes, 

snrpass  all  dry  encycCdias  o^^^  ft^^^^^^    ^VV'!^  contents,  cannot  fail  to 
phies,  niiserably  ?ra nsKd  '.?mH  ;  ;  '  T}  *'^*^""-'^le  histories  or  hiogra- 


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Harper's  Stereotype  Edition. 


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SKETCHES 


FROM 


VENETIAN  HISTORY. 


'  i }  --^  .^/W^'r-'i 


IN    TWO     VOLUMES. 
VOL.   I. 


PRINTED  AND  PUBLISHED  CY  T.  A  J.  H  illPER, 

NO.   82   CLIFF-STKtET, 

AND    SOLT)   BY  THE    PRINCIPAL   BOOKSELLERS    THROUaHOCT 

THE    UNITFD    STATES. 


1832. 


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BY    WHOSE   SUGGESTION 
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2  THEY    HAVE   VERY    GREATLY   PROFITED, 

50 


AND 
BY   WHOSE    MODESTY 


ANY   MORE  OPEN  ACKNOWLEDGMENT  WOULD  BE  DECLINED, 

THEY   ARE   NOW   INSCRIBED 

WITH 

CORDIAL    AFFECTION   AND    GRATITUDE. 


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The  copious  use  made  in  these  volumes  of  the 
great  works  of  M.  Simonde  de  Sismondi,  and  the 
late  Comtc  Daru,  will  be  apparent  in  almost  every 
page ;  and,  indeed,  no  approach  to  Venetian  His- 
tory can  be  fittingly  attempted  save  under  their 
guidance.  Nevertheless,  in  truth,  it  is  much  rather 
from  the  authorities  to  which  those  distinguished 
writers  point,  than  from  themselves,  that  the  follow- 
ing narrative  has  been  framed.  All  such  of  those 
authorities  as  were  accessible  have  been  diligently 
and  accurately  consulted ;  and  it  is  hoped  that  a 
gleaning  of  characteristic  incidents  has  occasionally 
been  found  among  tliem,  which  may  still  be  new  to 
all  excepting  those  who  have  explored  for  them- 
selves the  treasures  of  the  Italian  chroniclers. 

London f  January^  18IU. 


\ 


CONTENTS 


OF 


THE    FIRST   VOLUME. 


1 

i 


CHAPTER  I. 

FROM   THE   SETTLEMENT  OF  THE   VENETI  IN   ITALY  TO 

A.  D.   1173.  fif^ 

Origin  of  the  Veneti— Connexion  witli  Rome— Expulsion  from 
Venetia— The  T.airune— Government— Foundation  of  Venice— Trans- 
lation of  St.  Mark— Istriote  Piracy— Submission  of  Dalmatia— The 
Crusades— Siege  of  Tyre—Giovedi  Grasso— War  with  Manuel 
Comnenus 


13 


CHAPTER  n. 

D.  1173  TO  A.  D.  1192. 


rnoM  A. 

New  Constitution— Dissension  between  Pope  Alexander  III.  and 
the  Emperor  Frederic  liarbarossa— Siege  of  Ancona— Heroic  Ex- 
ploits and  Constancy  of  its  Citizens— Its  Relief— Alexander  III.  at 
Venice— Defeat  of  Barbarossa's  Fleet— Espousal  of  the  Adriatic- 
Peace  of  (Constance— Submission  of  the  Emperor  to  the  Pope— Privi- 
leges granted  by  Alexander  to  Venice— The  Red  Columns— Pro- 
curator! di  San  Marco — Avvogadori 49 


Enrico  Dandolo — Fourth  Crusade 


CHAPTER  in. 

FROM   A.  D.  1192  TO   A.  D.  1204. 

Conquest  of  Constantinople 


71 


CHAPTER  IV. 

FROM   A.  D.  1204  TO   A.  D.  1259. 

Fate  of  Mourtzouphlus— The  Bulgarians  invade  the  Empire— De- 
feat and  Capture  of  the  Emperor  Baldwin— Death  of  Enrico  Dan- 
dolo—The  pseudo-Baldwin— Policy  of  Venice  resjK'cting  her  Eastern 
Acquisitions— First  written  Code  of  Venetian  Law— War  with  Ec- 
cellino  Romano 


130 


CONTENTS. 


CONTENTS. 


XI 


CHAPTER  V. 

FRrtM  A.  P.  1259  T.)  A.  P.  1310.  rage 

F1r.t  war  -'tl.  Oenoa-,Tho  Cr.^WT»^rr^ 


CHAPTER  X. 

FROM   A.  P.  1402  TO   A.  P.  1106.  pgg, 

Venetian  and  fienocse  Fleets  observe  the  Progress  of  Timour— 
Carlo  Zetioand  Houcicault— Second  I)attleofSai»ienza— Distraction 
of  Milan— Carriira  seizes  Verona— Atteni]Hs  Vieen/.a— It  is  pre- 
viously occupied  by  the  Venetians— War  against  Carrara— lie  is 
betrayed  by  Count  Manfredi— Loses  Vtrona- Sie-ie  of  Padua— Pes- 
tilence—Carrara  burns  the  Venetian  Camp— He  is  driven  into  his 
Citadel— Accepts  a  Safe-conduct  to  Venice— Is  sentenced,  with  his 
two  elder  Sons,  to  capital  Punisluneni— Their  Deaths 293 


CHAPTER  VI. 

FROM   A.  D.  1310  TO    A.  n, 


1355. 


„  1  «r  tvio  intorrlict— War  with  Mastino  della  Scala— In- 

tion 
of 
Visconti,  Archbishop  o7  Milan-VVar  with  Milan-Battle  of  Sapienza  ^^^ 
—Marino  Faliero  


I  ^nVnt-  the  Three  Saints-Revolt  of  Zara-Pla-ne-Thinl  War 

'^^fn  rlnL    Rat  lie  of  car  sto-Jiattle  of  the  Rosphorus-Mediat.on 

r'^P^Xh     Bat Ue  of  Cad^  under  the   Protection  ol 

of  Petrarch- Battle  oi  i  d^u    ..._,.,..,.,.__,,..,,,,, ofsjanienza 


^1 


CHAPTER  VII. 

rnoM  A.  p.  1355  to  a.  p.  1373. 
wor  witli  Touis  of  Hunearv— Loss  of  Daln.atia— Request  of  Pe- 
traT  KS^ran^^^^^  i"  Candia-Petrarch's  Account  of  the 
rSvities  on  its  Suppression-Last  etruggle  of  the  tandiotes- 
Sues  orrrancesio  Vecchio  da  (^arrara-lnvas.on  of  Padua- 
SibmSon  of  Da  Carrara-Revolution  at  Constantinople-\outh 
ot  Carlo  Zeno-Acquisili<.n  of  Tenedos-AfTray  in  Cyprus-Power- 
ful League  against  Venice 

CHAPTER  Mil. 

FROM  A.  D.  1378  TO   A.  P.  1381. 

The  War  of  Chiozza 


;l 


PLATES  AND  WOODCUTS  IN  THE  HRST  VOLUME. 

PLATES. 

I.  Piazetta— Ducal  Palace— Rucentaur.    Frontispiece. 

II.  The  Giants'  Stairs.— p.  199. 

WOODCUTS'. 

I.  EflTigle.s  of  Frederic  Rarbarossa. — p.  70. 

II.  Carroccio  of  the  Milanese.— p.  115. 

HI.  Ancient  Doge  and  Dogaressa  (from  Titian).— p.  200. 


201 


220 


CHAPTER  IX. 

FROM   A.  P.  ISS^i  TO   A.  P.  1402. 

Acquisition  of  the  Trevisano  by  Carrara-Antonio  della  Scala- 
Early  History  Of  Giovanni  Caleazzo  Visconti-H.s  Alliance  with 
VeS.e  auainst  Carrara-Abd.caiion  of  Francesco  Vecchio-Sur- 
render  of  Padua  by  Francesco  Novello-He  is  treacherously  detained 
Prisoner- Jealousy  between  Venice  and  Milan-Lscape  of  tran- 
ccsco  Novello-His  romantic  Adventnres-lle  recovers  Padua-His 
magnificent  Entertainment  at  Venice-Death  of  F^f'j^^l'^  J^^:'^^'.'' 
-Afflurs  of  the  East-Pajazet-New  Crusade-Fatal  Battle  of  Ni- 
copolis-Erection  of  Milan  into  a  Dutchy-Gonzaga  of  Mantua- 
Dutncstic  Eventsin  Venice-Visit  of  the  Emperor  Robert-Death  of 
Giovanni  Galeazzo  Visconti 


261 


A^^tMiAb'b^i.Aw 


^5;dfeiW=iS8Vi 


SI^TCHES 


FROM 


VENETIAN  HISTORY. 


CHAPTER  r. 


FROM  THE  SETTLEMENT  OF  THE  VENETI  IN  ITALV  TO  A.  D.  1173. 

Origin  of  the  Veneii— Connexion  with  Rome— Expulsion  from  Venetia 
— The  Lagune— Government -Foundai ion  of  Venice -Translation  of 
St.  Mark  — Istnote  Piracy— Submission  of  Dalmatia— The  Crusades- 
Siege  of  Tyre— Giovedi  Grasso — War  with  Manuel  Comnenus, 


From  about  A.  D.  400  to  A.  D.  473,  Consuls  were  sent  from  Padua  for 
the  government  of  Rialto. 

From  A.D.  473  to  A,D.  697,  the  government  was  administered  by  tribunes. 

DOGES. 


A.D. 

697 
717 
72b 

737 

to 

742 


742 


I.     Paolo  Luca  Axafesto. 
II.     Marcello  Tegaliano. 
III.     Fabriciazio    Ukso — massacred,   and  the 
dogeship  abolished. 


Iau 


nual  Maestri  Delia  Milizia. 


DOGES  RESTORED. 


IV.     Theodato    Urso — deposed   and   deprived 
of  sijjht. 

755  V.     Galla — deposed  and  deprived  of  sight. 

756  VI.     DoMiNico   MoNEGARio— deoosed   and  de- 

prived of  sight. 
Vol.  I.— B 


iSfcf^^iH^jr-y^V^,.- 


« 


14 

A.  D. 

764 
779 


804 

809 

827 
828 


836 


864 

XIV. 

881 

XV. 

887 

XVI. 

888 

XVII. 

912 

XVIII. 

933 

XIX. 

939 

XX. 

942 

XXT. 

952 

XXII. 

976 

XXIII. 

978 

XXIV. 

979 

XXV. 

991 

XXVI. 

1006 

XXVII. 

1028 

XXVllI. 

1030 

XXIX. 

BOGES. 

VII.  M  4URIZI0  Galbaio— associates  his  son 
i  Giovanni  Galbaio,  singly,— as-  \ 

VIII.  \  sociates  his  son  >  deposed. 
(  Maurizio  Galbaio  II.  ' 
/'Obklerio  Antenore  — associ->j 

J  ates  his  brothers  V  deposed* 

^^'S  Beato  Antenore,  I 

VValentino  Antenore,  J 

(  Angelo  Participazio— associates  his  sons 
X.  )  Giovanni  Participazio— who  is  deposed, 

(  and 

r  JusTiNiANi   Participazio,   singly,  —  asso- 

XI.  <  ciates  his  son 

(  Angelo  Participazio  II. 
Giovanni     Participazio  —  restored    and 

again  deposed.  ,    /.    •  u* 

Carossio— deposed  and  deprived  of  sight. 
Giovanni  Participazio  again  restored. 
c  PiETRo   Tradenigo— assassinated,  before 
[.  )  which  he  associates  his  son 

\  Giovanni  Tradenigo. 
Urso  Participazio — associates  his  son 
Giovanni  Participazio  II.,  singly— abdi- 
cates. 

PlETRO    CaNDIANO. 

Giovanni  Participazio  recalled. 

PlETRO  Tribuno. 

Urso  Participazio  II.— abdicates. 

PlETRO  CaNDIANO  II. 
PlETRO  BaDOUERO. 

PlETRO  Candiano  III.— associates  his  son 
PlETRO  Candiano  IV.,  singly— massacred. 
PlETRO  Urseolo — abdicates. 
ViTALE  Candiano — abdicates. 
Tribuno  Memmo — abdicates. 
PlETRO  Urseolo  II. — associates  his   son 
Giovanni  Urseolo. 
Othone  Urseolo — deposed. 
PlETRO  Centranigo— deposed. 
DoMiNico  Urseolo — depoiscd. 
XXX.     DoMiNico  Flabenigo. 


INTRODUCTORY    REMARKS. 


16 


»^^ 


xn. 


Xlll 


■{ 


A.n. 

1041 

XXXI. 

DoMiNico  Contarini. 

1069 

XXXII. 

DoMiNico  Silvio. 

1084 

XXXIIJ. 

VlTALE  FaLIERO. 

1094 

XXXIV. 

Vitale  Michieli. 

1102 

XXXV. 

Oedelafo  Faliero. 

1117 

xxxvi. 

DoMINlCO  MlCHIELI. 

1130 

xxxvii. 

PlETRO  POLANI. 

1148 

xxxviii. 

DOMINICO  MOROSINI. 

1156 

ZXXIX. 

ViTALE  MlCHIELI  II. — mat 

In  our  own  days,  and  in  the  full  remembrance  of  many 
by  whom  these  pages  will  be  opened,  a  powerful  and  most 
illustrious  republic  has  perished  before  our  eyes.     Her  po- 
litical existence  has  been  utterly  abolished,  and  is  now  well 
nigh  forgotten.     Yet,  though  Venice  no  longer  holds  her 
former  eminent  station  among  the  independent  governments 
of  Europe  ;  though  her  maritime  sceptre  has  been  wrested 
from  her  hand,  and  her  Eastern  diadem  plucked  from  her 
brow;    though  she,  who   once   boasted  sovereignty  over 
almost  a  moiety  of  the  Roman  world,  now  ranks  but  as  a 
conquered  province— the  scorn  and  the  prey  of  strangers, 
whom,  in  her  pride,  she  despised  as  barbarians ;  yet  the 
memory  of  those  glories  which  she  won  during  her  "  high 
and  palmy  state"  is,  perliaps,  more  likely  to  be  transmitted 
in  its  full  lustre  to  posterity  than  if  she  still  retained  her 
dominion.     By  a  chance  unexampled  in  former  history,  the 
very  blow  which  levelled  her  to  the  dust  burst  open  and 
disclosed  the  secret  mechanism  by  which  her  greatness  had 
been  constructed ;  and  the  hidden  mysteries  of  her  state- 
policy,  the  riddle  and  the  admiration  of  centuries,  have  been 
discovered  and  revealed  but  in  the  moment  of  her  expirino- 
agony.     Much  of  atrocious  guilt,  of  oppression,  cruelty^ 
fraud,  treachery,  baseness,  and  ingratitude  will  darken  any 
review  of  her  annals.     But  from  the  documents  which  the 
possession  of  her  surrendered  archives  placed  in  the  hands 
of  her  conquerors,  and  upon  the  faith  of  which  the  suc- 
ceeding narrative  is  mainly  founded,  the  rulers  of  Venice 
must  be  pronounced,  without  reserve,  to  have  been  pre- 
eminently »*  wise  in  their  generation,"     It  is  our  intention, 


16 


VENETIA. 


in  the  followin<T  pacres,  to  present  in  detail  some  of  the  most 
s"r  kin'^^^^^^  on\^e  Wstory  of  this  great  repubhc,  con- 
^e"!^|them  with  each  other  by  a  brief  and  rapid  survey 
of  minor  events. 

That  fertile  district  of  Italy  which  is  contained  at  its 
nonhTasfen:  angle,  between  tL  Alps  and  the  mnermos 
coast  of  the  Adriatic  Gulf,  was  known  at  a  very  ^^  ^X  f  ^« 
bv  the  name  of  Vcnctia,  from  its  inhabitants  the  Veneti,  or 
^.  "',      ?he  origin  and  migrations  of  this  people  are  mat- 

^rTof  deep  obscurity,  and  they  f^^r^fV^lm:. 
cording  to  the  lancies  of  the  genealogists  ^f  naUon..  1  h.s 
question,  however  curious  to  the  antiquary,  is  otherwise 

E^orUnt,  and  may  be  safely  ^^-^^^^^f'^J^^Z 
inquiry.  From  whatever  country  the  Vencti  nay  have 
m?arated,  the  extreme  position  which  they  assumed  in  Italy 
proves  that  they  were  among  its  latest  colonizers  on  he 
Lrth.  Almost  as  little  is  known  of  them  for  a  long  period 
after  their  settlement  as  before  their  arrival ;  for  it  is  not 
till  the  fourth  century  of  Rome  that  we  obtain  even  an  in- 
cidental llict  concerning  them ;  but  this  fact  is  miportant 
for  it  proves  that  the  people  to  whom  it  rela  es  must  have 
been  powerful  and  warlike,  and  it  belongs  also  to  an  event 
upon  which  no  less  depended  th=^n,  t^^^  ^f  V  f  ^f,^""^^,5 
Rome  herself.  At  a  time  in  which  all  was  lost  to  the  eter- 
nal Citv  except  her  Capitol,  Polybius*  tells  us  that  the  in- 
vading  Gauls  were  obliged  to  retrace  their  steps  hastily,  in 
consequence  of  a  diversion  into  their  own  territories  effected 
bv  the  Vcneti.  This  good  service  was  acknowledged  by 
an  embassy,  from  which  resulted  a  formal  alliance  between 

Rome  and  Venetia.  .     ,      ,.        ..  i j 

Exclusively  of  any  claims  of  gratitude,  discretion  would 
no  less  prompt  the  Romans  to  encouroge  a  connexion  with 
Venetia.  A  state,  the  territory  ci  which  embraced  fifty 
cities  and  a  population  of  a  million  and  a  half  ot  souls, 
abundant  in  produce,  and  furnishing  a  breed  ot  horses  which 
often  successfully  competed  in  the  Olympic  stadium  wit  i 
the  fleetest  racers  of  Greece,  might,  from  its  neighbourhood, 
be  no  less  dangerous  as  an  enemy  than  it  had  proved  itself 
beneficial  as  an  ally.     The  transition  from  such  alliance  to 

t  Cramer's  Ttaly,  vol.  i.  p.  113,  and  the  authorities  there  ifiven. 


INVASION  BY  ATTILA. 


17 


dominion  was  one  of  the  leading  master-secrets  of  the  policy 
of  Rome.  By  what  insensible  degrees  the  Vened  forfeited 
their  independence,  whether  it  was  reluctantly  surrendered 
to  force,  or  willingly  accorded  for  protection,  is  not  now  to 
be  determined.  Nothing  more  is  known,  except  that,  in 
the  second  Punic  war,  they  furnished  a  contingent  against 
Hannibal ;  and  that  they  were  at  length  merged  among  the 
other  districts  wliich  contributed  to  form  the  province  of 
Cisalpine  Gaul. 

Henceforward,  Venetia  is  to  be  considered  as  a  constituent 
part  of  the  Roman  Empire,  and,  during  the  existence  of 
that  empire,  as  partaking  of  its  fortunes.  In  the  division 
of  Augustus  it  formed  his  tenth  region.*  Its  boundaries 
were,  on  the  west,  a  line  drawn  from  the  Athesis  (Adige), 
to  the  Padus  (Po) ;  on  the  north,  the  Alps  ;  the  Adriatic 
on  the  east ;  and  the  Po  once  again  on  the  south. 

We  pass  on  therefore  to  the  fifth  century  of  the  Christian 
era  and  to  the  invasion  of  Attila ;  the  epoch  from  which  the 
existence  of  the  modern  Venetians  must  be  dated.     During 
the  second  incursion  of  the  Gothic  Alaric,  when  Rome 
herself  had  yielded  to  his  assault,  notwithstanding  ^*  !?* 
the  splendid  temporary  advantages  obtained  by  Stili- 
cho,  Venetia  was  subjected   for  more  than  three  years  to 
the  occupation  an<l  the  ravages  of  the  Barbarians.     The 
premature  death  of  that  ferocious  conqueror  in  the  midst 
of  his  career  of  triumph,  and  the  pacific  retreat  of 
his  milder  brother  and  successor,  Adolphus,  afforded  ^J.  J' 
but  a  short  relief  to  the  falling  empire  :  for  the  Scy- 
thian hive  contained  new  swarms  which  it  was  preparing 
to  pour  forth  ;  and  the  sword  of  Marsy  after  having  depopu- 
lated the  East,  was  whetting  itself,  with  yet  greater  keen- 
ness, for  the  hardest  of  Italy.     As  Attila   advanced,  his 
fearful  threat  that  "  the  grass  never  grew  where  his  horse 
once  trod,"  was  reaUzed  to  the  very  letter :  and  when  Aqui- 
leia,  in  revenge  for  her  gallant  defence,  had  been  so 
levelled  as  to  be  even  without  ruins,  scarcely  another  ^V^ ' 
city  throughout  the  plains  of  Lombardy  ventured  to 
oppose  a  resistance  which  must  inevitably  involve  it  in  like 
destruction.  The  wretched  inhabitants  of  Concordia,  Oderso, 
Altino,  Padua,  and  the  neighbouring  towns  avoided  the 


*  Pliny,  book  iii.  ch.  18. 
B3 


f 


18 


THE  LAGUNE. 


FIRST  BUILDINGS  ON  RIALTO. 


19 


approaching  tempest  which  they  dared  not  abide ;  ant!, 
content  with  the  preservation  of  their  lives  and  their  move- 
ables, they  abandoned  their  hearths  to  the  fury  of  the  con- 
queror. .  .  .. 

The  great  object  of  the  fugitives  was  to  escape  pursuit ; 
and  security  could  be  best  obtained  by  retirement  to  spots 
either  difficult  of  access,  or  prescntin^r  little  allurement  to 
the  cupidity  of  an  invader  chiefly  hungering  after  spoil. 
Both  of  these  qualifications  were  combined  on  the  neigh- 
bourin'T  shore  of  the  Adriatic.     About  the  mouths  of  the 
numerous  rivers  which  discharge  themselves  over  a  space 
of  thirty  leagues  on  the  north-western  coast  of  that  gulf, 
from  Gradolo  Chiozza,  are  situated  very  numerous  small 
islands,  embanked  against  the  open  sea  by  long,  narrow, 
interveninij  slips  of  land,  which  serve  as  so  many  natural 
breakwaters.     This  ai^gerc,  as  it  is  termed,  has  been  formed 
by  the  deposite  of  countless  rivers,  a  deposite  borne  down 
them  for  ages  in  a  rapid  fall,  and  not  arrested  till  it  meets 
the  sea ;  where  it  has  raised  itself  into  impregnable  ram- 
parts (murazzi),  against  the  inroads  of  the  waves.     To- 
wards the  land,  these  islands  are  equally  protected ;  partly 
by  the  channels  of  the  great  rivers,  the  Lizonzo,  the  Tagli- 
amento,  and  the  Livenza,  flowing  from  the  .Julian  Alps ; 
the  Piave,  the  Musone,  the  Brcnta,  and  the  Adigc,  swollen 
with  the  snows  of  the  Tyrol ;  and  the  Po,  charged  with 
waters  both  from  the  Alps  and  Apennines  ;  and  partly  by  a 
yet  more  powerful  defence  in  a  bed  of  soft  mud,  covered 
with  water,  not  exceeding,  for  the  most  part,  one  or  two 
feet  in  depth,  and  extending,  at  the  time  of  which  we  are 
now  writing,  between  twenty  and  thirty  miles    from  the 
outer  shore"     This  expanse,  the    Lagunc,  which   cannot 
justly  be  considered  either  sea  or  land,  is  navigable  only  by 
skiffs  drawing  a  few  inches  water :  but  wherever  it  is  tra- 
versed by  any  of  the  estuaries  of  the  rivers,  or  yet  more  by 
canals  excavated   for  the   purpose,  ships  of  considerable 
burden  may  ride  securely.     The   entrances   through  the 
outer  barrier  are  few,  and  the  navigation  afterward  most 
intricate  and  difficult ;  so  that  much  skill  and  long  acquaint- 
ance with  the  watercourses    are    necessary   for   pilotage 
through  their  labyrinths.     The  islands  within  the  barrier 
are  scattered  through  various  parts  of  the  Lagune  ;  some 
divided  from  each  other  but  by  narrow  channels ;  other* 


more  remote,  as  so  many  outposts.  Rialto,*  the  chief  of 
these,  had  long  ser\'ed  as  a  port  to  Padua,  and  a  few  build- 
ings for  naval  purposes  had  been  constructed  upon  it.  All 
else  was  barren,  desolate,  and  uncultivated.  But  the  very 
qualities  which,  under  difl^erent  circumstances,  would  have 
been  most  repulsive  to  voluntary  settlers,  presented  attrac- 
tions and  offered  advantages  to  the  exiles  of  Venetia  not  to 
be  expected  in  other  places  ;  and  the  safety  for  which  they 
might  have  lookeil  in  vain  on  a  soil  richly  indebted  to 
nature  was  to  be  found  by  them,  if  anywhere,  amid  this 
wilderness  of  waters. 

The  fall  of  Aquileia  and  the  self-banishment  of  the  neigh- 
bouring inhabit:mts  occurred  in  the  year  4.'i2  of  our  era ; 
but  yet  earlier  some  rudiments  of  its  future  greatness  may 
be  traced  on  Rialto.  A  church,  dedicated  to  St.  James, 
had  been  erected  there  in  421  :  about  the  same  time  a 
decree  had  issued  from  Padua  for  the  formation  of  a  town 
on  its  naked  shoi-es,  in  order  to  consolidate  the  few  strag- 
glers who  were  to  be  found  on  the  neighbouring  islands ; 
and  for  the  government  of  this  infant  community,  annual 
magistrates,  under  the  title  of  consuls,  had  been  appointed 
by  the  mother  city.  Sabellico  has  preserved  a  tradition, 
partially  received,  that  the  earliest  buildings  of  this  town 
were  raised  on  the  very  spot  now  occupied  by  the  cathedral 
of  St.  Mark.  Another  belief,  from  which  he  assures  us 
there  is  no  dissent,  affirms  that  the  first  foundations  were 
laid  on  the  25th  of  March — a  day  on  which  none  but  a 
work  of  more  than  ordinary  magnilicence  and  dignity  could 
be  commenced.  It  is  the  day  on  which  the  Saviour  was 
conceived  in  the  womb  of  the  Virgin  ;  and  that  also  on 
which,  as  the  historian  discovers  in  holy  writ,  Adam,  the 
parent  of  mankind,  was  formed  by  God.t  Pietro  Justiniani 
has  presented  us  in  his  history  with  an  astrological  scheme 
of  the  nativity  of  these  foundations,  calculated  with  pre- 
cision to  the  hour  of  noon  on  the  25th  of  March,  A.  D.  421 ; 
and  he  assures  us  that  this  horoscope  prognosticates  the 
happiest  fortunes.     It  w^as  not  only  to  this  little  town,  how- 

*  Rivo  alto,  Ihe  deep  stream,  abbreviated  into  Rialio,  is  first  the  name 
of  this  island,  /sola  de  Rialto ;  then  of  the  bridge,  il  Ponte  di  RialtOy 
which  connects  it  with  the  opposite  bank ;  and  lastly  of  the  exchange, 
the  Rialto  of  Shakspeare,  which  stands  upon  this  island. 

t  Dec.  L  lib.  i.  p.  14. 


£n£^-: 


20 


GOVERNMENT TRIBUNES. 


ever,  that  the  exiles  directed  their  steps.  Its  narrow  dimen- 
sions, indeed,  forbade  the  reception  of  all  who  thronged  to 
it,  and  the  sands  of  Grado,  Caorlo,  Malamocco,  and  Peles- 
trina  were  covered  by  inmates.  The  mixed  feeling  of  regret 
for  the  homes  which  they  had  abandoned,  and  of  thanktul- 
ness  for  those  in  which  they  had  found  refuge,  is  strongly 
evinced  in  the  name  given  by  the  townsmen  of  Altino  to 
the  asylum  which  they  occupied  :  they  called  it  "the  port 

of  the  deserted  city."  

Before  the  towns  on  the  continent  could  rise  again  trom 
their  ashes,  the  foundations  of  an  independent  government 
had  already  been  laid  in  the  new  state.     Each  principal 
island  elected  a  tribune,  as  a  judicial  magistrate,  who  con- 
tinued  in  office  for  a  single  year,  and  who  was  responsible 
for  the  execution  of  his  duties  to  a  general  assembly.      1  he 
inhabitants  dedicated  themselves  to  the  only  employments 
which  their  scanty  territory  permitted,  fishing  and  the  manu- 
facture of  salt ;  and  safely,  because  obscurely,  sheltered 
from  the  repeated  calamities  by  which  the  country  they  had 
abandoned  was  desolated,  they  continued  to  gam  an  m- 
crease  of  strength  by  the  new  citizens  which  each  fresh  con- 
tinental outrage  added  to  their  numbers.     When,  m  the 
sixth     century,  the  Lombards  under  Alboin  established 
^- ?•  themselves  in  Italv,  the  new  invaders  followed  in  the 
^^^'  track  of  their  barbarian  predecessors  ;  and  the  inhabit- 
ants whom  ancient  Vcnetia  still  retained  were  compelled 
to  seek  the  same  asylums  which,  more  than  two  centuries 
before,  had  received  the  original  exiles.     The  citizens  of 
Altino  fled  to  Torcello  ;  those  of  Concordia  to  Caorlo  ;  and 
the  Paduans  became  suppliants  for  a  refuge,  which  was 
not  denied,  in  that  Rialto  from  which  they  had  not  long 
before  demanded  the  obedience  of  a  subject. 

This  increase  of  population  in  the  islands,  as  it  multiplied 
their  interests,  so  also  it  demanded  a  greater  vigour  than 
was  possessed  by  their  existing  government.  The  details 
of  the  change  have  not  reached  us  ;  but  it  appears  that 
some  abuses  sowed  the  seeds  of  party  spirit,  and  that  the 
republic  was  menaced  by  internal  divisions.  On  these 
accounts,  the  general  assembly  was  convoked  at  Herac- 
^' ^'  lea,  and  it  was  wisely  determined  to  confide  in  a 
single  hand  the  power  which  hitherto  had  been  parti- 
tioned among  several  tribunes.     The  title  proposed  was 


MAESTRI  DELLA  MILIZIA- 


2t 


Doo'C,  or,  in  other  words,  duke.  It  is  believed  that  twelve 
electors,  whose  names  have  been  preserved,  and  who  are 
the  stocks  from  which  afterward  sprang  the  most  illus- 
trious families  in  Venice,  united  their  suflraores  in  favour 
of  Paolo  Luca  Anafesto,  a  citizen  of  Heraclea.  His  dig- 
nity was  conferred  for  life  ;  he  was  .issisted  by  a  council  of 
state,  the  members  of  which  he  himself  nominated  ;  the 
public  revenue  was  at  his  disposal  ;  the  general  assembly 
was  summoned  at  his  decree  ;  he  appointed  the  judges  and 
tribunes  ;  appeals  from  them  lay  to  his  jurisdiction  ;  all 
ecclesiastical  synods  were  convoked  by  him  ;  and  although 
the  election  of  prelates  still  remained  with  the  people,  the 
right  of  investiture,  which  operated  as  a  veto,  belonged  to 
the  doge.  Above  all,  he  alone  possessed  the  prerogative  of 
peace  or  war.  Little  else,  it  may  be  imagined,  besides  these 
ext<;nsive  privileges,  was  wanting  to  constitute  a  pure  des- 
potism. 

This  unlimited  authority,  however,  does  not  apnear  to 
have  been  abused  till  the  reign  of  the  third  doge,  Faiiririazio 
Urso,  who  was  assassinated  in  a  popular  tumult  which  he 
had  provoked  by  his  haughtiness.     The  experiment  of  a 
chief  magistrate  for  life  had  been  tried  and  appeared  to  have 
failed.     Without  any  diminution  of  his  power,  it  was  now 
resolved  to  limit  its  duration  ;  and  a  ruler  under  the 
title  of  Maestro  dclla  Milizia  or  de'   Soldati,  elected    !^'^' 
but  for  a  year,  supplied  the  place  of  the  abolished 
doge.     Five  Maestri, or  Mastromili  as  the  name  became  cor- 
rupted, are  recorded  in  succession,  before  the  title  of  doge 
was  revived.     The  reigns  which  succeeded,  during  many 
years  after  this  renewal,  were,  for  the  most  part,  signalized 
by  oppression  on  the  side  of  the  prince,  and  by  resistance  on 
that  of  the  people  ;  and  they  terminated,  in  frequent  in- 
stances, by  the  expulsion  of  the  tyrant.     In  one  of 
these  numerous  struggles,  the  intervention  of  Pepin,    q"^/ 
upon  whom  his  father  Charlemagne  had  recently  be- 
stowed the  crown  of  Lombardy,  was  incautiously  solicited; 
and  the  new  king  readily  entered  upon  a  connexion  afford- 
ing pretext  for  hostilities  against  a  state  which,  from  its 
contiguity  with  his  own  dominions,  he  might  hope  to  in- 
clude, one  day,  within  their  limits.     The  events  which  fol- 
lowed are  obscure  and  varionslv  related  ;  but  thus  much  is 
certain,  that  the  republic  of  the  islands  was  soon  taught  that 


T^M^M^^, 


22 


INVASION  BY  PEPIN  OF  LOMBARDY. 


lesson  60  often  to  be  learned  from  history,  how  dangerous 
it  is  to  invite  the  interference  of  a  powerful  neighbour.     It 
was  not  to  secure  the  election  of  a  doge  of  Venice  that  the 
king  of  the  Lombards  had  armed  :  his  objects  were  directed, 
through  this  excuse,  to  his  own  aggrandizement ;  and,  tak- 
ing occasion  from  the  refusal  of  his  allies  to  assist  him  in 
the  conquest  of  Dalmatia,  which  he  wished  to  add  to  his 
acquisitions  in  Istria  and  Friuli,  he  directed  against  the 
western  shore  of  the  Adriatic  that  armament  which  had 
been  ostensibly  assembled  to  obtain  mastery  of  its  eastern 
borders.     Heraclea   and  Equilo  were  attacked  and  given 
to  the  flames  ;  and  it  was  only  at  the  personal  solicitation 
of  Obelerio,  the  candidate  whose  interest  he  espoused,  and 
who,  in  opposition  to  his  fellow-citizens,  had  strongly  advo- 
cated the  necessity  of  joining  in  the  Dalmatian  expedition, 
that  the  remaining  towns  escaped  similar  ravages,  and  that 
the  invading  troops  were  withdrawn.     A  fresh  provocation, 
indiscreetly*  offered,  renewed  the  anger  of  Pepin,  and  he 
was  not  slow  in  manifesting  it.     The  fort  of  Brondolo  and 
the  islands  of  Chiozza  and  Pelestrina  speedily  surrendered 
to  hhn  ;  and  Malamocco,  the  capital,  was  already  invested 
by  troops  thirsting  for  its  plunder,  and  separated  from  it,  now 
Albiolo  was  conquered,  only  by  the  narrow  channel  of  a 
single  canal.     Pepin's  bridges  were  constructed,  the  stream 
was  crossed,  and  he  entered  the  city  ;  but  it  was  to  a  barren 
triumph,  for  the  whole  population  had  abandoned  its  walls. 
Listening  to  the  advice  of  Angelo  Participazio,  one  of  those 
great  men  whose  illustrious  qualities  are  best  displayed  in 
times  of  danger,  they  had  thrown  themselves  into  their  gal- 
leys, and  taken  up  a  position  on  Rialto,  in  the  very  centre 
of  the  Lagune^  where,  protected  from  invasion  by  broader 
channels,  they  determined  to  maintain  a  desperate   and 
extreme  resistance.     The  Lombard  king  summoned  them 
to  surrender  at   discretion.     On  their  refusal,  he  endea- 
voured to  form  a  bridge  of  boats,  which  was  destroyed  ;  and, 
in  a  second  attempt  to  transport  his  whole  forces  in  large 
vessels,  well  adapted  for  the  open  sea,  but  little  fitted  for  the 
shifting  and  uncertain  depths  of  the  Lagune,  he  became  en- 
tangled in  their  shallows.     The  islanders,  profiting  by  his 
embarrassment,  set  fire  to  the  stranded  vessels,  and  con- 
tinued the  work  of  destruction  till  the  flow  of  the  returning 
tide  enabled  the  shattered  fleet  to  withdraw  to  Malamocco, 


LJafcA  Ja-  S\J'\a.**   4 


TRANSLATION  OF  ST.  MARK. 


23 


The  towns  already  in  the  power  of  the  invader  endured  the 
fullest  calamities  which  defeat  and  disappointed  ambition 
could  inflict ;  and  Pepin,  having  thus  far  gratified  his  re- 
venge, abandoned  all  further  operations  and  retreated  to  the 
continent. 

Angelo   Participazio  had   saved  his  country,  and   the 
chief  dignity  which  she  could  bestow  was  his  just 
reward.     Obelerio  was   solemnly  rejected,   and   the    q'^q 
new  doge  actively  engaged  himself  in  the  confirma- 
tion of  that  security  to  which  his  wisdom   had  pointed 
the  way.     The  sixty  islets  which  clustered  round  Rialto 
were  connected  with  it  and  each  other  by  bridges  ;  a  new 
capital  arose  within  their  circuit ;  a  cathedral  and  a  ducal 
palace  were  founded  on  the  site  which  they  still  occupy ; 
and  the  name  of  the  province  on  terra  finmi  from  which  the 
citizens  derived  their  origin  was  given  to  the  metropolis 
which  they  were  creating.     Such  was  the  birth  of  Venice. 

In  the  reign  of  Justiniani  Participazio,  the  son  and  suc- 
cessor of  Angelo,  undistinguished  by  events  of  more 
important  character,  the  Venetians  became  pos-  gi^~* 
sessed  of  the  relics  of  that  saint  to  whom  they  ever 
afterward  appealed  as  the  great  patron  of  their  state  and  city. 
These  remains  were  obtained  from  Alexandria  by  a  pious 
stratagem,  at  a  time  when  the  church  wherein  they  were 
originally  deposited  was  about  to  be  destroyed,  in  order  that 
its  rich  marbles  might  be  applied  to  the  decoration  of  a 
palace.  At  that  fortunate  season,  some  Venetian  ships  (it 
is  said  no  less  than  ten,  a  fact  proving  the  prosperous 
extent  of  their  early  commerce)  happened  to  be  trading  in 
that  port ;  and  their  captains,  though  not  without  much 
difficulty,  succeeded  in  obtaining  from  the  priests  who  had 
the  custody  of  the  holy  treasure  its  deliverance  into  their 
hands,  in  order  that  it  might  escape  profanation.  It  was 
necessary,  however,  that  this  transfer  should  be  made  in 
secrecy ;  for  we  are  assured  by  Sabellico,  who  relates 
the  occurrence  minutely,  that  the  miracles  which  had  been 
daily  wrought  at  the  saint's  shrine  had  strongly  attached 
the  populace  to  his  memory.  The  priests  carefully  opened 
the  cerements  in  which  the  body  was  enveloped  ;  and  con- 
sidering, doubtless,  that  one  dead  saint  possessed  no  less 
intrinsic  virtue  and  value  than  another,  they  very  adroitly 
substituted  the  corpse  of  a  female,  Sta.  Claudia,  in  the  folds 


24 


TRANSLATION  OF  ST.  MARK. 


DISAPPEARANCE  OF  ST.  MARK. 


25 


which  had  been  occupied  by  that  of  St.  Mark.  But  ihey 
had  widely  erred  in  their  graduation  of  tlie  scale  ot  beati- 
tude.  So"  sreat  was  the  odour  of  superior  snnctity,  that  a 
rich  perfume  diffused  itself  through  the  church  at  the 
moment  at  which  the  grave-clothes  of  the  evangelist  were 
disturbed  ;  and  the  holy  robbery  was  well  nigh  betrayed  to 
the  eacrer  crowd  of  worshippers,  who,  attracted  by  the  sweet 
smell,  thronged  to  inspect  the  relics  and  to  ascertain  their 
safety.  After  examination,  they  retired,  satished  that  their 
favourite  saint  was  inviolate  ;  for  the  slit  which  the  priests 
had  made  in  his  cerements  was  behind  and  out  ot  sight. 
But  the  Venetians  still  had  to  protect  the  embarkation  of 
their  prize.  For  this  purpose,  effectually  to  prevent  all 
chance  of  search,  they  placed  the  body  ni  a  large  ba^et 
stuffed  with  herbs  and  covered  with  joints  of  pork.  1  he 
porters  who  bore  it  were  instructed  to  cry  loudly  "  Khanziry 
KhanzirV*  and  every  true  Mussulman  whom  they  met 
carefully  avoided  the  unclean ness  with  which  he  was  threat- 
ened by  contact  with  this  forbidden  flesh.  Even  when  once 
on  board,  the  body  was  not  yet  quite  safe ;  for  accident  might 
reveal  the  contents  of  the  basket ;  it  was  therefore  wrapped 
in  one  of  the  sails  and  hoisted  to  a  yard-arm  of  the  main- 
mast, till  the  moment  of  departure.  IN  or  was  this  precaution 
unnecessary  ;  for  the  unbelievers  instituted  a  strict  search 
for  contraband  goods  before  the  vessel  sailed.  During  the 
voyage,  the  ship  was  hi  danger  from  a  violent  storm  ;  and 
but  for  the  timely  appearance  of  the  saint,  who  warned  the 
captain  to  furl  his  sails,  she  would  inevitably  have  been  lost. 
The  joy  of  the  Venetians,  on  the  arrival  of  this  precious 
cargo,  was  manifested  by  feasting,  music,  processions,  and 
prayers.  An  ancient  tradition  was  called  to  mind,  that  St. 
Mark,  in  his  travels,  had  visited  Aquileia ;  and  having 
touched  also  at  the  Hundred  Isles,  at  that  time  uninhabited, 
had  been  infonned,  in  a  prophetic  vision,  that  his  bones 
should  one  day  repose  upon  their  shores.  Venice  was  sol- 
emnly consigned  to  his  protection.  The  saint  himself,  or 
his  lion,  was"  blazoned  on  her  standards  and  impressed  on 
her  coinage  ;  and  the  shout  of  the  populace,  whether  on 
occasions'of  sedition  or  of  joy,  and  the  gathering  cry  of  the 

*  Khanzir,  Arab,  a  hog.    A  cape  on  the  coast  of  Sjiia  is  named  Rat 
e!  Kkanzir,  i.  e.  bogVhead. 


armies  of  the  republic  in  battle  was,  henceforward,  "  Viva 
San  Marco .'" 

The  lion  of  St.  Mark  has  a  more  profound  meaning  than 
he  may  appear  to  bear  at  first  sight.     As  the  heralds  would 
blazon  him,  he  is  azure^  siegeanl^  his  wings  or,  and  he  holds  a 
book  argent,  open  under  his  paws.    He  sits,  as  we  are  told,  in 
order  to  show  that  the  Venetians  are  wise  and  pacific  ;  for 
sages  and  counsellors  mostly  use  that  attitude:  moreover 
to   evmce  that   they  conquer  rather  by  address   than  by 
violence,  as  it  was  said  of  the  Romans — Rumanus  iedendo 
vincit.     He  is  winged,  to  show  that  they  are  prompt  in  exe- 
cution.    On  one  occasion  these  wings  furnished  a  pungent 
reply  to  an   imperial  ambassador  who  inquired   in  what 
country  such  a  species  of  lions  was  to  found  1     "  In  the 
same  country,"  answered  the  reigning  doge,  "  which  pro- 
duces spread  eagles."     The  legend  written  on  the  book  is 
Pax  tibij  Marce,  Ei-angclista  mats,  the  salutation  addressed 
by  an  angel  to  the  saint  when  he  landed,  as  above  mentioned, 
at  the  spot  now  occupied  by  the  church  and  convent  of  San 
Francesco  della  Vigna.     But  in  time  of  war  the  book  is 
closed,  and  a  naked  sword  is  placed  in  the  lion's  paws.*     It 
is  scarcely  necessary  to  adil  that  the  first  notion  of  the  lion 
is  borrowed  from  one  of  the  visions  of  Daniel  :  of  the  four 
great  beasts  which  that  prophet  saw,  "  the  first  was  like  a 
lion  and  had   eagle's   wings."t     But  the  symbols  of  the 
evangelist  have  been  a  matter  fruhful  of  discussion. 

Notwithstanding  the  splendour  of  his  reception,  and  the 
many  subsequent  testimonies  of  high  honour  which  he 
received,  the  saint  occasionally  proved  capricious,  and  did 
not  always  deign  to  show  himself  even  to  his  most  illustrious 
visiters.  Two  centuries  after  the  above  translation  (1094), 
when  the  emperor  Henry  III.  made  an  express  pilgrimage 
to  his  shrine,  the  body  had  very  petulantly  disappeared. 
The  priests  had  recourse  to  prayer  and  fasting  for  its 
recovery,  and  the  whole  capital  was  engaged  in  tears,  absti- 
nence, and  supplication.  At  length  the  saint  relented. 
One  morning  the  sacristan  whose  turn  it  was  to  attend  the 
church  in  which  the  body  ought  to  have  been  found,  per- 
ceived, on  entering,  a  fragrant  odour  and  a  brilliant  light, 

*  Amelot  de  la  Houssaye,  Hist,  du  Gouvem.  de  Venlae,  p.  568. 
T  Chaj).  vii.  4. 


..  'J"/-  i  >-y^.>t»w.-i>^.a 


a<iyid!fe»^A.-<"-yy  as^ftaifea 


26 


HIS    RELICS. 


which  issued  from  a  particular  column.     The  simple  priest 
imagined  that  there  was  afire,  and  ran  up  in  affright  to  extin- 
guish it ;  nor  was  his  alarm  diminished  when  he  saw  a  hu- 
man arm  protruding  from  the  column.     He  hastened  to  the 
doge  and  announced  this  marvel,  and  the  bishop  of  Olivolo 
and  the  other  clergy,  having  been  summoned,  repaired,  with 
profound  devotion,  to  the  church.     There,  as   they  knelt 
before  the  pillar,  the  arm  dropped  a  ring  from  one  of  the 
fingers  of  its  hand  into  the  bishop's  bosom  ;  and  at  the 
same  time  the  column  opened  and  displayed  an  iron  coffin 
enclosing  the  remains  of  the  evangelist.     The  holy  corpse 
wrought  numerous  miracles  ;  and  a  feast  was  instituted  to 
commemorate  its  invention.     On  each  24th  of  July,  while 
the  magnificat  was  being  chanted,  the  congregation  was 
sprinkled  with  rose-water,  in  memory  of  the  sweet  odour, 
and  two  tapers  were  lighted  before  the  pillar.     Among  the 
other  relics  which  on  this  occasion  were  borne  abroad  in 
splendid  procession  was  an  autograph  of  his  gospel  from  the 
evangelist's  own  pen,  in  which,  unhappily,  learned  men  are 
undetermined  whether  the  character  is  Greek  or   Latin,* 
and  whether  the  material  is  paper  or  parchment.     The  ring 
was  sacrilegiously  stolen  in  the  year  1585,  and,  perhaps, 
the  body  has  undergone  a  similar  fate.     Having  been  placed 
in  a  receptacle  more  worthy  of  it,  the  secret  of  which  was 
intrusted  to  none  save  the  doge,  and  the  provveditori — 
officers  especially  appointed  for  the  saint's  guardianship — 
a  magnificent  church  was  decreed  and  built  over  this  mys- 
terious tomb.f     Yet  a  modem  traveller,  who  was  by  no 
means  likely  to  approach  this  legend  with  an  eye  of  skep- 
ticism, roundly  taxes  Carossio,  who  about  twenty  years 
afterward  for  a  short  time  usurped  the  throne,  with  a  pri- 
vate sale  of  the  relics.     "  Since  his  time,"  says  Eustace, "  the 
existence  of  the  body  of  St.  Mark  has  never  been  publicly 
ascertained.    The  place,  however,  where  the  sacred  deposite 
lies  is  acknowledged  to  be  an  undivulged  secret ;  or,  perhaps, 
in  less  cautious  language,  to  be  utterly  unknown."! 

*  Hey's  Lectures,  L  37,  where  a  reference  is  given  to  Michaelis, 
^  12. 4to.  But  a  full  account  of  the  MS.  may  he  found  in  the  Diarium 
Italicum  of  Montfaucon  (c.  iv.  p.  55).  That  profound  scholar  and  anti- 
quary examined  it  very  closely,  and  decided  that  it  wag  Latin:  He  de- 
scribes it  as  perishing  from  the  dampness  of  its  repository. 

t  Sabellico,  Decad.  I;  lib.  v.  ad  in. 

t  Classical  Tour,  vol.  i.  p.  17L 


ISTRIOTE   PIRACY. 


27 


A  whole  century  ensued  presenting  little  matter  which 
deserves  attention,  and  the  reigns  of  the  six  doges  by  which 
that  period  was  occupied  may  be  passed  in  silence. 
Under  Candiano  II.,  occurred  one  of  those  events  Joq* 
which  vividly  depict  the  manners  of  the  age  to  which 
they  belong ;  and  which,  though  affecting  individuals  rather 
than  a  nation,  excite  nevertheless  very  powerful  interest, 
and  almost  connect  history  with  romance.*  According  to 
an  ancient  usage,  the  marriages  among  the  chief  families  at 
Venice  were  celebrated  publicly.  The  same  day  and  the 
same  hour  witnessed  the  union  of  numerous  betrothed  ;  and 
the  eve  of  the  feast  of  the  Purification,  on  the  return  of 
which  the  republic  gave  portions  to  twelve  young  maidens, 
was  the  season  of  this  joyous  anniversary.  It  was  to 
Olivolo,  the  residence  of  the  patriarch,  on  the  extreme  verge 
of  the  city,  that  the  ornamented  gondolas  repaired  on  this 
happy  morning.  There,  hailed  by  music  and  the  gratula- 
tions  of  their  assembled  kindred,  the  lovers  disembarked  ; 
and  the  festive  pomp,  swelled  by  a  long  train  of  friends, 
richly  clad,  and  bearing  with  them,  in  proud  display,  the 
jewels  and  nuptial  presents  of  the  brides,  proceeded  to  the 
cathedral.  The  pirates  of  Istria  had  long  marked  this  peace- 
ful show  as  affording  a  rich  promise  of  booty  ;  for,  at  the 
time  of  which  we  are  writing,  the  arsenal  and  its  surround- 
ing mansions  were  not  yet  in  existence,  Olivolo  was  un- 
tenanted, except  by  priests,  and  its  neighbourhood  was  en- 
tirely without  inhabitants.  In  these  deserted  spots  the 
corsairs  lay  in  ambush  the  night  before  the  ceremony; 
and  while  the  unarmed  and  unsuspecting  citizens  were  yet 
engaged  in  the  marriage  rites  before  the  altar,  a  rude  and 
ferocious  troop  burst  the  gates  of  the  cathedral.  Not  con- 
tent with  seizing  the  costly  ornaments  which  became  their 
prize,  they  tore  away  also  the  weeping  and  heart-broken 
brides,  and  hurried  them  to  their  vessels.  The  doge  had 
honoured  the  festival  with  his  presence,  and,  deeply  touched 
by  the  rage  and  despair  of  the  disappointed  bridegrooms, 
he  summoned  the  citizens  to  arms.  Hastily  assembling 
such  galleys  as  were  in  the  harbour,  they  profited  by  a  fa- 
vourable wind,  and  overtook  the  ravishers  before  they  were 
extricated  from  the  Lagune  of  Caorlo.     Candiano  led  the 

*  Mr.  Rogers  in  his  Itah/, "  The  Brides  of  Venice,''  has  already  femiliar- 
lied  Eiiglisii  ears  with  this  most  romantic  incident. 


»  -!>.    1^  -tj^.'iiS:     4 


28 


MARIAN  GAMES. 


attack,  and  such  was  its  fury  that  not  a  single  Istriotc 
escaped  the  death  which  he  merited.  The  maidens  were 
brouaht  hack  in  triumph  ;  and  on  the  evening  of  the  same 
day  The  interrupted  rites  were  solemnized  with  joy,  no  doubt 
much  heijilitened  by  a  remembrance  of  the  peril  which  had 
80  well  ni'gh  prevented  their  completion.  The  memory  of 
this  siniTular  event  was  long  kept  alive  by  an  annual  pro- 
cession of  Venetian  women  on  the  eve  of  the  Purification, 
and  by  a  solemn  visit  paid  by  the  doge  to  the  church  of  Sta. 
Maria  Formosa. 

It  was  by  the  trunkmakers  {casscllari)  of  the  island  on 
which  the  above-named  church  stands  that  the  jjreater  part 
of  the  crew,  hastily  collected  on  this  occasion,  was  fur- 
nished ;  and  Candiano,  as  a  reward  for  their  bravery,  asked 
them  to  demand  some  privilege.     They  requested  this  an- 
nual visit  to  their  island.     "  What,"  said  the  prince,  "  if  the 
day  should  prove  rainy  1"—"  We  will  send  you  hats  to  cover 
your  heads,  and  if  you  are  thirsty  we  will  give  you  drink." 
To  commemorate  this  question  and  reply  the  priest  of  Sta. 
Maria  was  used  to  offer  to  the  doge,  on  landing,  two  flasks  of 
malmsey,  two  orans^es,  and  two  hats,  adorned  with  his  own 
armorial  bearincrs,  those  of  the  pope,  and  those  of  the  doge. 
The  Marian  games  {La  Fcsfa  dclle  Marie),  of  which  this 
andata  formed  part,  and  which  lasted  for  six  days,  continued 
to  be  celebrated  till  they  were  interrupted  by  the  public  dis- 
tress during  the  war  of  Chiozza.*     They  were  renewed  two 
hundred  years  afterward  with  yet  greater  pomp  ;  but  of  the 
time  at  which  they  fell  into  total  disuse  we  are  unable  to 
speak. 

The  three  reigns  which  immediately  followed  were  barren 
of  events  of  interest,  though  not  unmarked  by  bloodshed 

and  internal  tumult.  At  length  one  doge,  Pietro 
q' ^*   Urseolo  I.,  deservedly  acquired  the  affections  of  his 

subjects ;  but  the  gentle  virtues  to  which  he  was  in- 
debted for  their  love  were  of  that  class  which  rendered  the 
toils  of  government  irksome ;  and  having  resolved  upon 
abdication,  after  two  short  years  of  rule,  he  quitted  his 
palace  under  disguise  and  by  stratagem,  in  order  to  escape 
detention,  and  secluded  himself  in  the  neighbouring  abbey 
of  Perpignan.     There  his  meekness  and  devotion  obtained 


♦  Sabellico,  Dec.  I.  lib.  iii.  p.  66, 


INCREASED  POWER  OF  VENICE. 


29 


for  him  far  higher  honours  than  those  of  the  throne  which 
he  had  resigned ;  and  after  his  death  the  holy  see  enrolled  him 
among  her  list  of  saints.     His  memory  was  long  venerated 
by  his  countrymen,  and  even  so  late  as  the  year  1732,  his 
right  arm,  enclosed,  as  a  relic  of  inestimable  value,  in  a 
silver  shrine  of  exquisite  workmanship,  was  deposited  in 
the  treasury  of  St.  Mark.     Thirteen  years,  with  the  inter- 
vention of  two  reigns,  passed  before  his  son,  a  second  Pietro 
Urseolo,  was  called  to  the  throne.     Report  asserted 
that  the  abdicated  doge,  already  advanced  many  steps    ^'J^' 
towards  his  future  canonization,  had  long  ago  pro- 
phesied the  greatness  of  his  child.     On  this  account,  *he 
most  favourable  auguries  attended  the  opening  reign,  and 
the  wise  administration  of  the  new  prince  justified  the  hopes 
of  his  country.     The  largely  extended  commerce  of  Venice, 
by  increasing  her  internal  wealth  and  resources,  had  awak- 
ened also  her  ambition  for  foreign  conquest ;  and  the  lapse 
of  five  centuries,  through  which  we  have  passed  in  the  above 
brief  sketch  of  her  history,  had  not  only  raised  the  original 
small  band  of  exiles  and  fishermen  into  a  rich,  powerful, 
and  independent  nation,  but  at  the  same  time  had  created 
a  natural  wish  that  these  riches  and  this  power  should  find 
a  wider  scene  of  display  than  was  aflforded  by  the  narrow 
limits  of  the  Lagune  and  a  few  adjoining  ports.     Urseolo 
II.  was  fitted  for  the  crisis  at  which  he  reigned.     Having, 
in  the  first  instance,  appeased  the  rage  of  domestic  faction, 
he  next  addressed  himself  to  commercial  treaties,  and  his 
negotiations  secured,  yet  more  fully  than  it  had  hitherto  been 
possessed,  the  command  of  the  chief  neighbouring  ports 
and  rivers  of  Italy,  obtained  extensive  privileges  and  ex- 
emptions from  the  Greek  emperor,  and  cultivated  the  good- 
will and  alliance  of  the  Syrian  and  Egyptian  sultans.  Venice, 
long  before   the  close  of  the  tenth  century,  had  become 
the  emporium  not  only  of  Italy  but  of  Greece  and  of  all  the 
countries  bordering  on  the  Adriatic  :  and  while  Pisa,  Genoa, 
and  Amalfi,  subsequently  her  chief  maritime  competitors, 
were  but  scantily  known,  she  was  the  exclusive  factor  be- 
tween Europe  and  the  Levant.     The  eastern  coast  of  the 
Adriatic,  notwithstanding  this  commercial  pre-eminence  of 
Venice,  possessed  numerous  ports  maintaining  themselves 
by  an  advantageous  trade.     As  each  of  the  empires  which 
bordered  them  on  either  confiine  diminished  in  strength, 

C2 


30 


CAPTURE  or  LESINA. 


these  districts  gradually  asserted  independence  ;  and  their 
progress  was  naturally  regarded  with  a  watchful  and  jealous 
eye  by  the  Venetian  government.  But  the  Istrians,  the 
Liburnians,and  the  Dalmatians  were  destined  to  aggrandize, 
not  to  rival,  the  queen  of"  the  Adriatic.  Venice,  no  less 
than  her  maritime  neighbours,  continued  to  be  harassed  by 
the  pirates  of  Narenta ;  and  whatever  occasional  exemp- 
tion she  might  enjoy  from  plunder  was  purchased  by  the 
distrraceful  humiliation  of  an  animal  tribute.  We  know  not 
whether,  as  has  been  sometimes  said,  the  Dalmatian  towns 
voluntarily  tendered  submission  as  the  price  of  delivery  from 
these  robbers,  or  whether  the  Venetians  plausibly  armed  in 
their  defence,  as  a  pretext  to  veil  ultimate  designs  of  con- 
quest ;  but  in  the  spring  of  997,  a  powerful  fleet  was  manned, 

either  for  their  protection  or  subjection  ;  and  the 
QQ7*    Jf^gpj  having  received  the  standard  of  St.  Mark  from 

the  hands  of  the  bishop,  embarked  on  the  first  expe- 
dition undertaken  by  his  country  for  extension  of  terri- 
tory. His  progress  was  a  continued  and,  for  the  most  part, 
a  peaceful  triumph.  At  Parenzo  and  at  Pola  he  was  ad- 
mitted with  open  arms  by  the  citizens,  who  solicited  him  to 
adopt  them  as  children  of  his  republic.  Capo  d'Istria, 
Pirano,  Isol;.',  Emone,  Rovigno,  Humago,  and  Zara,  all  prof- 
fered oaths  of  fealty,  and  hailed  him  as  deliverer  and  sove- 
reign. Mulcimir,  King  of  Croatia,  found  safety  in  alliance, 
cemented  by  the  marriage  of  his  son  with  a  daughter  of  the 
doge.  Equal  submission  awaited  him  from  Sj)alatro  to 
Lissa,  and  the  first  resistance  which  he  encountered  was 
offered  by  the  islands  Curzola  and  Lesina.  The  former 
of  these  was  won  without  difficulty,  for  it  possessed  little 
means  of  defence  ;  but  Lesina  presented  a  formidable  op- 
position, both  from  the  natural  advantages  of  its  site,  and 
yet  more  from  the  precaution  of  the  Narentines,  who  had 
established  on  it  a  dep6t  strongly  fortified  and  garrisoned. 
The  Venetians  speedily  blockaded  the  port  and  invested  the 
town  ;  and  on  the  refusal  of  their  first  summons  they  pressed 
to  the  assault.  The  defence  was  long  and  brave,  and 
the  carnage  proportionately  murderous ;  but  in  the  end  the 
garrison  was  compelled  to  yield.  The  lives  of  the  inhabit- 
ants were  spared  ;  and  on  the  same  spot  whereon  the  doge 
received  the  keys  of  Lesina,  the  submission  of  Ragusa  also, 
i^xtorted  by  the  terror  of  iiis  arjns,  was  tendered  and  accepted. 


VISIT  OF  OTHO  III.  TO  VENICE. 


31 


The  possession  of  Curzola  and  Lesina,  the  outworks  of 
Narenta,  rendered  that  bay  itself  defenceless;  and  the 
Venetian  army,  disembarking  without  opposition,  desolated 
the  neighbourhood  with  fire  and  sword.  Few  of  the  in- 
habitants escaped  this  war  of  extermination ;  and  when, 
fatigued  with  slaughter,  the  invaders  admitted  the  small 
remnant  to  terms,  those  terms  were  such  as  the  recollection 
of  two  centuries  of  injury  might  be  expected  to  dictate. 
The  tribute  was  abolished,  the  population  disarmed,  indem- 
nities for  former  plunder  were  rigidly  demanded,  and  the 
whole  resources  of  this  little  state,  if  a  union  of  pirates  may 
be  so  named,  were  placed  at  the  command  of  the  victors. 
The  government  of  all  these  newly-p.c<juired  territories  was 
framed  after  a  model  of  great  simplicity,  and  without  any 
distinction  between  cessions  and  conquests.  A  podestcLy 
nominated  by  the  doge  from  some  principal  family  in 
Venice,  administered  in  each  town  in  the  name  of  the 
republic ;  and  the  natives  were  utterly  excluded  from  par- 
ticipation in  public  afiairs. 

These  brilliant  successes  of  Urseolo  were  gratefully 
acknowledged.  To  the  title  of  Duke  of  Venice  was  annexed 
that  of  Duke  of  Dalmatia ;  the  emperor  Otho  IIL  honoured 
hini  by  becoming  sponsor  to  his  son  ;  and  on  a  })rogress 
which  he  made  to  Rome,  after  passing  three  days  in  Venice, 
he  relieved  her  at  the  prayer  of  the  doge  froni  a  testimony 
of  vassalage  which  had  become  oflfensive  to  the  growing 
pride  of  the  citizens  ;  declining  the  receipt  of  a  robe  of  cloth 
of  gold  which  had  hitherto  been  annually  sent  as  a  mark  of 
dependence.  More  substantial  tokens  of  imperial  favour 
were  shown  by  exemptions  granted  throughout  his  do- 
minions, and  by  permission  to  occupy  certain  neighbouring 
ports.  This  visit  of  Otho  was  paid'  under  the  most  rigid 
incognito.  Ho  arrived  at  night,  attended  by  not  more  than 
five  domestics ;  and  was  received  in  the  monastery  of  San 
Servolo,  as  aflJbrding  readier  means  of  concealment  than  any 
other  private  or  public  lodging.  The  doge,  having  been  ad- 
mitted to  his  first  audience,  which  also  took  place  by  night, 
after  exchanging  congratulations  with  the  emperor,  accom- 
panied him  to  St.  Mark's ;  whence  Otho,  having  paid  his 
devotions,  passed  with  no  less  secrecy  to  the  ducal  palace. 
During  his  stay,  Urseolo,  to  avoid  suspicion,  always  dined 
in  public  ;  and  iji  the  eveuinnr  supped  in  intimate  familiarity 


279540 


32 


DESTRUCTION  OP  HADRU. 


with  his  illustrious  guest.  It  was  not  till  three  days  after 
the  emperor's  departure  that  the  doge  convoked  a  general 
assembly,  and  having  announced  the  visit  of  Otho  and  the 
gracious  concessions  to  which  he  had  been  pleased  to  agree, 
received  the  warmest  thanks  and  applause  of  his  people,  for 
the  consummate  prudence  and  inviolable  secrecy  which  he 
had  maintained.  So  early  was  mystery,  even  respecting 
trifles,  esteemed  a  praiseworthy  quality  in  the  rulers  of 
Venice  ! 

The  reign  of  Othone,  the  son  of  Pietro  Urseolo, 
i^'nfi'    ^^^  distinguished  by  the  conquest  of  Hadria.     In  a 

war  which  her  citizens  provoked  by  a  claim  to  the 
territory  of  Loredo,  the  doge  vigorously  marched  to  repulse 
an  attack  upon  that  district,  defeated  the  invaders,  and  pur- 
suing their  routed  forces,  besieged,  captured,  and  destroyed 
their  town.  Such  was  the  fate  of  that  once  great  and 
flourishing  city,  which  in  times  of  remote  antiquity  was 
doubtless  the  chief  port  of  its  cognate  Adriatic.  Even  if 
not  of  much  earlier  origin,  it  was  the  principal  seat  of  such 
commerce  as  the  Tuscans  enjoyed  when  their  dominion  ex- 
tended from  that  sea  to  the  Mediterranean  :  so  late  as  the 
fourth  century  Pliny  speaks  of  its  "noble  harbour:"  and,  at 
the  period  which  we  are  now  considering,  it  retained  suf- 
ficient power  to  need  the  direct  chastisement  of  Venice ; 
but  in  our  own  days  both  man  and  nature  appear  jointly  to 
have  conspired  against  its  prosperity.  It  is  still,  indeed, 
the  seat  of  a  bishop,  but  it  has  dwindled  into  a  mean  and 
ruined  village,  rejected  even  by  the  sea  bearing  its  name, 
and  removed,  by  one  of  those  changes  not  uncommon  on  a 
shifting  coast,  no  less  than  eighteen  miles  from  the  waters 
which  once  bore  riches  to  its  haven. 

Dominico  Flabenigo,  who  succeeded  to   the  throne   in 

1030,  procured  the  enactment  of  an  important  and 
.«*„Q*    most  salutary  law.     The  state  had  hitherto  been 

saved  from  hereditary  usurpation  solely  by  the  fre- 
quent recurrence  of  insurrection  and,  occasionally,  of  law- 
less bloodshed.  The  greater  number  of  doges  had  endea- 
voured to  perpetuate  the  succession  in  their  own  families ; 
five  had  already  sprung  from  a  single  stock ;  several  had 
been  associated  without  even  the  nominal  consent  of  the 
people  ;  and  the  remedies  which  the  republic  had  been  com- 
pelled to  apply  id  four  instances  were  no  milder  than  death 


W^Tj^ 


CONNEXION  WITH  CONSTANTINOPLE. 


33 


or  banishment.  A  law  was  now  pro]>osed  that  no  successor 
should  in  future  be  named  during  the  lifetime  of  the  reign- 
inorjoge.  It  was  unanimously  accepted,  recorded  as  a  fun- 
damental institute  of  the  g  )vernment,  and  ever  afterward 
observed  inviolably. 

The  chroniclers  have  presented  an  amusinij  picture  of  the 
luxurious  habits  of  the  ConstantinopoUtan  fair  one 
who  shared  the  crown  of  Dominico  Silvio,  a  later 


A.  D. 

1069. 


doge.  Such,  we  are  assured,  was  the  extent  of  her 
refinement — adeo  morosa  fuit  elerrantid^ — that  she  banished 
the  use  of  plain  water  from  her  toilet,  and  washed  herself 
only  with  the  richest  and  most  fragrant  medicated  prepara- 
tions. Her  apartments  were  so  saturated  with  perfumes, 
that  those  who  were  unaccustomed  to  such  odours  often 
fainted  upon  entering  ;*  and  as  the  climax  of  sinful  in- 
dulgence (for  such  it  appears  to  the  narrator)  in  the  inordi- 
nate pride  of  her  evil  heart,  she  refused  to  employ  her  fingers 
in  eatinsr,  and  never  touched  her  moat  unless  with  a  golden 
fork.  Her  end  was  in  miserable  contrast  with  these  Syba- 
ritic manners.  She  was  stricken  with  a  sore  disease,  con- 
sidered, no  doubt,  as  an  especial  jud<rment ;  and  her  suffer- 
ings, which  were  long  protracted,  were  of  such  a  nature  as 
to  excite  rather  the  disgust  than  the  pity  of  her  attendants.-f 

Vitale  Faliero,  who  was  next  called  to  the  throne, 
largely  benefited  the  republic  by  skilful  negotiations,  {nc^/ 
The  Greek  emperor,  Comnenus,  renounced  in  favour 
of  Venice  the  pretensions  which  he  had  hitherto  asserted  to 
nominal  sovereignty  over  Dahnutia ;  he  granted  a  free  en- 
trance to  her  ships  into  all  his  ports,  and  assigned  ware- 
houses for  their  goods ;  he  naturalized  her  residonts  at 
Constantinople,  and  he  compelled  the  merchants  of  Amalfi 
to  pay  an  annual  tribute  to  tlie  cathedral  of  St.  Mark.  The 
establishment  of  a  fair  in  honour  of  that  saint,  which  oc- 
curred about  this  time,  by  mingling  the  purposes  of  devotion 
with  those  of  commerce,  attracted  numerous  throngs  of 
visiters  to  the  Venetian  capital,  who  by  the  largeness  of  their 


♦  The  Venetian  la'lies  are  still  morbidly  sensible  to  the  smell  of  per- 
fumes. Mr.  W.  S.  Rose,  in  his  very  agreeable  Lettert  /rn?)>  the  \t>rt?i 
of  Italy,  describes  them  as  fainting  at  the  odour  of  co*nmon  essences, 
and  speaks  of  wcll-auihenticated  instances  of  deaths  in  childbed  from 
similar  causes. 

t  Sabeliico,  Decad.  I.  lib.  iv.  ad  ann.  lliTl,  who  cites  Daniianus, 


34 


THE  CRUSADES. 


AFFRAY  WITH  THE  PISAN  FLEET. 


39 


expenditure  contributed  to  the  increase  of  the  national 
wealth.  So  lucrative  did  these  institutions  prove,  that  other 
canonized  remains  received  similar  honours  ;  and  such  was 
the  consequent  ardour  with  which  relics  were  collected,  as 
allurements  for  pilgrim-merchants,  that  when  the  agents 
who  had  been  despatched  to  purchase  the  body  of  San 
Tarasio,  a  defunct  patriarch  of  Constantinople,  failed  in 
their  bidding,  the  saint  was  transported  to  the  Adriatic  by 
means  very  little  in  accordance  with  honesty. 

A  new  and  far  wider  scene  of  conquest  was  opened  by 
this  alliance  with  Constantinople  ;  and  the  narrow  limits 
of  the  Adriatic  were  no  longer  to  bound  the  Venetian 
dominion.  It  is  not  here  that  we  need  trace  the  rise  of  the 
crusades,  nor  the  manifold  causes  which  summoned  the 
whole  armed  population  of  Europe  to  a  romantic  and 
perilous  warfare  in  the  East.  The  part  borne  by  Venice  in 
these  expeditions  rendered  her  most  illustrious  :  the  con- 
sequences were  greater  than  her  most  sanguine  citizens 
could  dare  to  imagine  in  their  warmest  and  most  glowing 
dreams  of  ambition ;  and  it  is  only  to  her  share  in  this  ex- 
traordinary portion  of  history,  and  to  the  brilliant  results 
which  she  drew  from  it,  that  we  propose  to  confine  our 
narrative. 

To  whatever  extent  Venice  may  have  partaken  in  the 
general  religious  enthusiasm  which  filled  the  ranks  of  the 
crusaders,  there  were  reasons  also  of  worldly  policy  which 
must  have  prompted  her  to  be  among  the  most  forward  in 
any  contest  of  which  the  East  was  to  be  the  theatre. 
Greatly  as  she  might  desire  the  expulsion  of  the  Infidels 
who  profaned  the  holy  places  and  engrossed  the  wealth  of 
Syria ;  and  much  as  she  might  wish  to  supplant  the  present 
possessors  of  spots  so  favourable  to  religious  ardour  and  to 
oriental  commerce  ;  her  interests  no  less  powerfully  de- 
manded that  she  should  prevent  the  intrusion  of  those  who 
were  likely  to  become  competitors  with  herself;  and  she 
could  not  but  foresee  that  in  the  same  proportion  in  which 
other  European  nations  became  established  in  the  Levant, 
even  so  her  own  mercantile  prosperity  was  about  to  be 
diminished.  Whatever  hesitation,  therefore,  might  at  first 
be  felt,  must  have  been  owing  to  the  natural  coldness  and 
repugnance,  or  rather  the  alarm  and  jealousy,  with  which 
the  Greek  emperor  obser^^ed  the  approach  of  those  vast 


armaments  which  were  pouring  into  his  neighbourhood 
from  the  West.  Venice  was  in  too  close  connexion  with 
Constantinople,  and,  for  the  present,  too  deeply  concerned 
in  preserving  her  amicable  relations  with  that  court,  to  run 
the  hazard  of  giving  offence  by  acting  contrary  to  its  wishes. 
Two  years,  therefore,  appear  to  have  elapsed  afler  the  de- 
parture of  the  first  champions  of  the  Cross,  before  the  re- 
public determined  to  provide  her  contingent  to  the  great 
confederacy ;  and  in  the  very  outset  an  event  occurred 
sufficiently  manifesting  how  little  likely  she  was  to  forget 
her  private  and  national  advantages  in  the  furtherance  of 
the  general  cause.  The  fleet  which  sailed  from 
the  Adriatic,  while  Vitale  Michieli  was  doge,  con-  iQgg* 
sisted  of  somewhat  more  than  two  hundred  vessels, 
of  which  one-half  was  furnished  by  the  Dalmatian  ports. 
Arrived  oflf  Rhodes,  it  formed  a  junction  with  a  Pisan  arma- 
ment, bound  to  the  same  coasts  and  directed  to  the  same 
object.  The  two  republics  were  on  terms  of  professed  amity 
with  each  other,  when  an  unseemly  difference,  ill  according 
with  the  avowed  motives  of  their  expedition,  led  to  a  dis- 
pute and  a  battle.  The  little  island  of  San  Nicolo  contained 
the  body  of  the  saint  from  whom  it  was  named — a  deposite 
of  much  value  in  the  eyes  of  the  Venetians,  for  reasons 
which  we  have  just  stated.  Whether  the  purchasers  were 
niggardly  in  the  price  which  they  oflfered,  or  whether  the 
Caloyers,  to  whom  the  merchandise  belonged,  were  exorbi- 
tant in  their  demands,  is  not  now  to  be  ascertained  ;  but  the 
Venetians,  unable  to  complete  a  satisfactory  bargain,  re- 
solved to  possess  by  force  that  which  they  could  not  obtain 
by  negotiation.  The  relics  were  torn  from  their  shrine,  and 
conveyed  to  one  of  the  Venetian  galleys  ;  not,  however,  to 
be  received  in  peace  ;  for  the  partition  of  the  spoil  became 
an  object  of  dispute  between  the  allies.  The  Pisans  urged, 
that,  being  on  the  spot,  they  were  entitled  to  at  least  half 
the  body  ;  the  Venetians  denied  their  claim  to  any  part  of 
it.  Angry  words  were  quickly  succeeded  by  direct  hostili- 
ties ;  and  the  two  Christian  fleets,  designed  to  rescue  the 
holy  sepulchre  from  unbelievers,  diverted  their  arms  in  the 
first  instance  to  purposes  of  mutual  destruction,  for  the  pos- 
session of  a  dead  man's  bones.  The  superior  number  of 
the  Venetians  did  not  allow  victory  to  be  long  suspended ; 


^*8W-V^     Atft*-«      ^ 


«l 


REVOLTS  OF  ZARA. 

and  the  capture  of  twenty  Pisan  galleys  and  of  five  ihoo- 
sand  prisoners  wns  the  result  of  the  contest. 

The  coast  of  Syria  was  occupied  by  the  crusaders,  and 
it  was  there  that  the  aid  of  the  Venetians  would  have  been 
most  effectual :  true,  however,  to  the  pursuit  of  gam,  they 
directed  their  course  after  this  engagement  to  Smyrna,  an 
undefended  town,  which  could  not  offer  resistance  to  their 
pillatre.  Whether  they  assisted  afterward  in  the  blockade 
and  conquest  of  Jaffa  is  by  no  means  certain  ;  sure  it  is, 
however,  that  before  the  approach  of  winter  they  returned 
to  their  harbours,  bearing  with  them  the  fruits  of  their 
piracy,  and  devoutly  committing  the  relics  of  San  Nicolo 
to  a  chapel  on  the  isle  of  Lido.  In  the  following  campaign, 
they  partook  in  some  degree  in  the  successes  at  Ascalon 
and  at  Caiapha  :  but  their  co-operation  was  tardy  and  lan- 
guid. The  more  vigorous  exertions  of  the  next 
*•  "•  doge,  Ordelafo  Faliero,  contributed  to  the  reduction 
^^"^'  of  Acre,  of  Sidon,  and  of  Eer>'thus ;  and,  as  the 
Christian  arms  advanced  in  Palestine,  Venice,  no  less  than 
the  other  maritime  republics,  largely  partook  of  the  benefits 
of  conquest ;  and  the  seeds  of  future  jealousy  were  sown 
among  them  by  the  very  equality  of  partition.  If  Venice 
obtained,  from"  the  profuse  liberality  of  Baldwin,  rne-fourth 
part  of  the  city  of  Acre,  a  free  commerce  thr.M  ghout  his 
new  kingdom  of  Jerusalem,  and  an  immunity  within  its 
Irniits  from  all  jurisdiction  excepting  that  of  her  own  magis- 
trates, still  the  possession  of  a  quarter  of  Antioch,  and  the 
envied  dignity  of  patriarch  of  the  Holy  City  accorded  to  the 
Pisans,  and  the  grant  of  similar  distinctions  or  commercial 
privileges  to  the  Genoese  were  calculated  to  excite  alarm 
in  a  rival  power.  To  what  fearful  extent  these  apprehen- 
sions spread  themselves  we  shall  hereafter  perceive. 

Faliero,  before  the  close  of  his  reign,  was  summoned  to 
the  reduction  of  Zara,  which  had  opened  her  gates 
j'  f '  to  the  King  of  Hungary.  The  triumph  of  the  doge 
was  complete  :  he  defeated  the  invaders,  and  pursued 
them  into  their  mountain  fastnesses  ;  and,  having  suffi- 
ciently punished  the  revolters,  he  was  invested  on  his  return 
to  Venice  with  the  title  of  Duke  of  Croatia.  Within  three 
years,  a  fresh  spirit  of  disaffection  manifested  itself,  and  the 
Hungarians  again  advanced.     The  result  was  widely  dif- 


BATTLE  OF  JAFFA. 


37 


\ 


ferent.  Faliero  was  mortally  wounded  in  a  battle 
under  the  walls  of  Zara,  and  the  few  of  his  troops  ,^*,~* 
who  escaped  from  the  field  regained  their  transports  ^^^'* 
with  difficulty.  The  King  of  Hungary,  elated  by  his  success, 
refused  the  terms  proposed  to  him,  and  consented  only  to  a 
su.'-pension  of  anns  during  the  next  five  years. 

The  resources  of  the  state,  however,  were  too  powerful 
to  be  impaired  by  this  partial  reverse ;  and  the  slight  dis- 
grace attaching  to  it  was  soon  to  be  obliterated  by  fresh 
and  more  distinguished  triumphs  in  the  East.  There,  the 
second  Baldwin,  pressed  on  all  hands  by  the  Infidels,  solicited 
the  general  aid  of  Christendom  ;  and  while  his  ambassadors 
were  awakening  the  pious  zeal  and  stimulating  the  com- 
mercial appetite  of  the  Venetians,  news  of  his  capture  and 
of  the  imminent  peril  of  Jerusalem  accelerated  the  succours 
which  they  were  preparing  to  furnish.  The  doge  Domi- 
nico  Michicli  commanded  an  annament  which  has  been 
estimated  at  not  less  than  two  hundred  vessels  ;  and  among 
these  were  several  galleys  of  more  than  ordinary  dimen- 
sions, each  banked  with  a  hundred  oars  and  each  oar 
requiring  two  men  to  ply  it.  The  Saracen  fleet  was 
stationed  in  the  hay  of  Jaffa  ;  and  perceiving  at  first  A'e^' 
only  a  few  ships  of  burden,  which  Michieli  had  placed 
in  the  van  to  cover  his  advance,  was  unapprehensive  of 
attack.  The  battle  began  at  daybreak,  and  an  untoward 
event,  in  fts  very  commencement,  increased  the  terror  into 
which  the  Infidels  had  been  thrown  by  their  surprise.  The 
galley  bearing  the  doge  himself,  being  a  swifter  vessel  than 
its  mates,  first  entered  the  enemy's  line  ;  and,  as  chance 
determined,  bore  down  upon  the  Saracen  admiral  :  the 
shock  was  irresistible,  and  the  hostile  vessel  sank  with  all 
its  crew.  As  the  conflict  became  general,  the  Saracens, 
dispirited  by  the  loss  of  their  chief,  fought  every  where  at 
disadvantage.  Yet  their  resistance  was  long  and  bloody ; 
the  two  entire  lines  were  engaged  ship  to  ship,  and  it  was 
chiefly  by  their  desperate  resolution  in  boarding  that  the 
Venetians  were  in  the  end  successful  and  the  enemy  was 
completely  destroyed.  Some  allowance  may,  perhaps,  be 
made  for  the  rhetorical  style  of  the  Archbishop  of  Tyre 
when  he  records  the  hideous  slaughter  in  this  action  :  the 
victors,  he  assures  us,  however  incredible  it  may  sound, 
stood  on  their  decks  ankle-deep  m  the  blood  of  their  foes» 

Vol.  I.— D 


88 


PRIVILEGES  IN  THE  HOLY  LAND 


the  sea,  for  a  circuit  of  two  miles  (Furcherius  enlarges  this 
space  to  four),  was  tinged  with  a  scarlet  die  ;  and  the  nu- 
merous unburied  corpses  which  floated  to  the  shore  bred  a 
contagious  disorder  by  their  putrescence.  Michicli  sullied 
his  victory  by  the  cruel  execution  of  his  chief  prisoners  ; 
and,  leaving  his  fleet  at  Jaffa,  hastened  on  in  person  to 
Jerusalem,  where  he  celebrated  the  festival  of  Christmas. 
There,  sagaciously  directing  the  excitement  which  his 
recent  victory  had  produced,  he  concluded  with  the  council 
of  regency  a  treaty  most  advantageous  to  the  interests  of 
his  republic.  One-fourth  of  Acre,  as  we  have  already  seen, 
had  been  granted  to  the  Venetians.  A  new  allotment  be- 
stowed on  them  an  entire  street  in  each  city  of  the  king- 
dom of  Jerusalem,  with  a  bath,  a  bakehouse,  a  market,  and 
a  church  ;  all  their  imports  were  permitted  to  pass  free 
from  duty ;  no  taxes  were  to  be  paid  by  them  ;  and  so  para- 
mount an  authority  was  attributed  to  their  magistrates,  that 
in  all  cases  in  which  a  resident  Venetian  was  defendant,  he 
was  to  be  tried  in  his  own  native  courts,  and  it  was  solely 
as  prosecutor  that  he  was  compelled  to  appear  before  a 
royal  judge.  In  the  partition  of  future  conquests,  a  third 
of  Tyre,  Ascalon,  and  their  dependencies,  when  won  (a 
consequence  upon  which  the  sanguine  hopes  of  the  cru- 
saders always  reckoned),  was  to  be  assigned  to  the  Vene- 
tians ;  who,  as  some  acknowledgment  for  this  territory, 
were  to  supply  a  third  of  the  garrison  of  Tyre  ;  but  even 
these  troops  were  to  be  maintained  and  paid  at  the  king's 
expense,  who  set  apart  for  the  purpose  300  golden  besants. 
His  future  services  thus  amply  rewarded  beforehand,  the 
doge  prepared  for  the  field.  While  the  impression  of  their 
defeat  was  recent,  it  was  naturally  supposed  that  the  Infi- 
dels would  feel  discouraged  ;  and  that  some  great  enterprise 
might  be  successfully  undertaken.  But  to  what  quarter 
was  this  enterprise  to  be  directed  1  Forethought  was  not 
among  the  qualities  which  marked  the  crusading  chiefs  ;  and 
it  would  have  been  idle  to  expect  that  any  plan  for  a  future 
campaign  should  have  been  meditated  and  digested,  or  that 
they  should  even  know  on  what  point  their  foe  was  most 
vulnerable.  But  supernatural  guidance,  it  was  believed, 
was  always  at  hand  to  supply  any  defect  of  human  pru- 
A^  j^^^,^  ^^  ^l^jg  decision  the  Christian  fortunes  were 


dence 


intrusted.     The  names  of  the  chief  Syrian  cities,  or  at  least 


1 


SIEGE  OF  TYRE. 


39 


of  Tyre  and  Ascalon,  concerning  which  most  doubt  existed, 
were  written  on  separate  papers  and  deposited  in  an  urn. 
This  urn  was  placed  upon  the  altar ;  and  after  the 
celebration  of  a  solemn  mass,  an  orphan  child  was  ^'^' 
employed  to  draw  out  the  lot  which  was  to  decide  the 
march  of  the  crusading  hosts.  Tyre  was  the  name  borne 
by  the  fiital  scroll ;  and  no  object  of  greater  importance  or 
of  greater  difficulty  could  have  been  selected  ;  for  thfe  joint 
forces  of  the  sultans  of  Damascus  and  Egypt,  under  able 
commanders,  garrisoned,  with  no  incompetent  numbers,  the 
vast  circuit  of  its  walls  ;  and  nineteen  miles  of  ramparts 
bristled  with  armed  defenders.  The  sea  encompassed  it  on 
all  sides,  save  where  a  channel,  in  its  narrowest  part  more 
than  half  a  mile  in  breadth,  was  crossed  by  the  mole  which 
Alexander  had  constructed  1400  years  before  ;  and  which, 
if  it  bore  witness  that  Tyre  might  in  the  end  be  won, 
proved  at  the  same  time  the  gigantic  efforts  demanded  for 
its  reductiori.  The  conqueror  of  tlie  world  had  almost  aban- 
doned this  city  in  despair ;  nor  was  it  till  after  seven  months 
of  unparalleled  toil  and  the  loss  of  more  blood  than  all 
Persia  cost  him,  that  he  entered  its  breach  by  storm.  But 
a  few  years  antecedent  to  the  siege  now  contemplated,  the 
mightiest  efforts  of  the  crusaders  had  been  directed  against 
it  in  vain. 

Three  months,  from  the  middle  of  February,  were  fruit- 
lessly expended  in  assaults  perpetually  repulsed.  The  port, 
flanked  by  towers  and  guarded  by  a  double  wall,  was  not  to 
be  forced  ;  and  the  mole,  yet  more  strongly  intrenched  and 
fortified,  gave  additional  defence  to  the  garrison  rather  than 
means  of  approach  to  the  besiegers.  No  symptoms  either 
of  distress  or  weakness  appeared  within  the  city  ;  and  it 
was  known  that  the  Sultan  of  Damascus  was  hastening  to 
its  relief.  Among  the  confederates,  on  the  other  hand, 
incessant  and,  as  it  seemed,  hopeless  efforts  had  produced 
irritation  and  discontent ;  and  a  spirit  of  jealousy  began  to 
exhibit  itself  between  the  forces  employed  on  the  different 
services.  The  troops  investing  the  city  by  land  murmured 
at  their  unremitted  hardships  ;  and,  contrasting  their  own 
daily  perils  and  labours  with  the  ease  and  security  of  those 
who  were  engaged  in  the  blockade  by  sea,  looked  with  an 
evil  and  suspicious  eye  upon  their  Venetian  allies.  This 
danger  was  observed,  encountered,  and  remedied  by  the 


.feaiBit<i3(*j»Xk5ai>iBtjaji»'a^.iiiaC<n--»^ 


I 


40 


SURRENDER  OF  TYRE. 


promptitude  of  M ichieli ;  and  history  presents  few  speci- 
mens of  more  chivalrous  self-abandonment  than  that  upon 
which  he  resolved.  Stripping  the  entire  fleet  of  its  equip- 
ments, he  ordered  the  rovvage,  masts,  sails,  and  rudders  to 
be  borne  with  him  to  the  camp.  "  These,"  he  said,  pointing 
to  the  burdens  of  his  attendants,  "  are  the  pledges  of  our 
fidelity  and  of  our  participation  in  dangers  which  ought  to 
be  common  to  all.  We  can  no  longer  have  it  even  in  our 
power,  if  it  could  be  supposed  to  be  in  our  will,  to  quit  the 
walls,  and  the  slightest  gale  will  expose  us  to  far  greater 
peril  than  that  of  mortal  combat !"  This  substantial  proof 
of  sincerity,  and  the  politic  advance  at  the  same  time  of 
one  hundred  thousand  ducats  for  the  payment  of  the  sol- 
diers, restored  confidence  at  once  among  the  allies.  A 
general  voice  deprecated  the  useless  exposure  to  danger 
which  the  Venetians  proffered,  and  all  hands  assisted  in 
refitting  the  fleet,  the  active  services  of  which  might  soon 
be  demanded. 

The  siege  was  still  vigorously,  but  not  more  successfully, 
pressed  ;  and  two  other  months  passed  away  without  dimi- 
nution of  courage  or  constancy  on  either  hand,  although 
scarcity  began  to  appear  within  the  walls.  Accident,  in  the 
end,  presented  occasion  for  a  fortunate  stratagem.  One  of 
those  carrier-pigeons  which  the  orientals  employ  as  mes- 
sengers, was  seen  passing  over  the  camp,  and,  terrified  by 
a  loud  shout  which  the  besiegers  raised,  fell  into  their  hands. 
The  despatch  fastened  to  its  wing  announced  speedy  as- 
sistance from  the  Sultan  of  Damascus  ;  but  it  was  easy  to 
substitute  intelligence  of  a  directly  contrary  nature,  to  an- 
nounce that  this  chief  was  hard  pressed  in  another  direction, 
and  compelled  to  abandon  Tyre  to  its  own  resources.  The 
bird,  laden  with  this  forged  communication,  was  released 
and  flew  to  the  city.  There  the  garrison  believed  the  un- 
welcome news,  and  hopeless  of  that  relief  upon  which  they 
had  placed  their  main  dependence,  surrendered  on  terms. 
Ascalon,  upon  which  the  Christian  arms  were  next  directed, 
soon  afterward  fell  an  easy  conquest. 

These  successes  awakened  a  new  and  unexpected  enemy 
to  Venice.  The  Greek  empire,  long  conscious  of  her  own 
weakness,  and  doubtful  whether  the  hazard  to  which  she 
was  exposed  by  the  Infidels  was  not  less  immediate  than 
that  which  might  be  apprehended  from  the  establisliment  of 


WAR  WITH  JOHANNES  COMNENUS. 


41 


a  powerful  European  dominion  on  lier  frontiers,  abandoned 
herself  to  the  impulses  of  fear  and  jealousy  ;  and,  by  aim- 
ing a  hlow  which  she  was  too  nerveless  to  strike  with  elfect, 
j)royoked  the  very  dangers  which  she  sought  to  avoid.     Her 
cruisers  received  orders  to  interrupt  the  Venetian  commerce, 
and  to  capture  the  merchant  vessels  of  the  republic  wher- 
ever they  were  to  be  met.     It  is  not  disputed  that  there  were 
yet  other  causes  of  irritation  ;  for  Johannes  Comnenus,  who 
at  that  time  filled  the  throne  of  Constantinople,  was  among 
the  best  and  wisest  of  her  princes,  and  is  not  likely  to  have 
yielded  to  any  rash  intemperance  of  anger.     The  crusaders, 
unfortunately,  had  carried  with  them  to  the  East  the  most 
undisguised  contempt  for  a  people  whom  they  affected  to 
consider  as  barbarians,  and  had  consequently  been  little  so- 
licitous to  show  respect  either  to  their  laws  or  their  religion. 
Pride  was  among  the  most  besetting  sins  of  the  champions 
of  the  holy  sepulchre  ;  and  the  great  share  which  belonged 
to  the  Venetians  in  the  reduction  of  Tyre,  one  of  the  most 
brilliant  exploits  of  the  Christian  chivalry,  might  diminish, 
even  in  them,  that  moderation  by  which'  they'had  hitherto 
been  distinguished,  and  exchange  the  deference  with  which 
they  had  been  accustomed  to  regard  the  court  of  Constanti- 
nople for  a  manner  more  conformed  to  the  haughty  demean^' 
our  of  their  brethren  in  arms.     Be  this  as  it  may,  the  first 
avowed  hostility  was  committed  by  the  emperor ;  and  Michieli 
lost  no  time  in  inflicting  reprisals,  for  which  he  pos.sessed 
r«ady  means.     His  fleet  swept  and  desolated  the  imperial 
coast ;  and  the  doge,  no  longer  required  before  Tyre  or  Asca- 
lon, proceeded  to  Rhodes  which  he  sacked  and  pillaged  ; 
Scio  underwent  a  like  fate,  and  here  he  fixed  his  winter- 
quarters.     In  the   following  spring  his  ravages  extended 
over  the  whole  Archipelago  ;  whenSamos,  Paros,  Mitylene, 
Andros,  Lesbos,  and  other  islands  were  visited  with  relent- 
less vengeance  ;  and,  in  pursuance  of  that  detestable  traffic 
of  which  there  are  traces  in  Venetian  commerce  even  before 
the  middle  of  the  eighth  century,   the  choicest  youth  of 
both  sexes  were  torn  away  from  those  unhappy  islands  to  be 
siM  as  slaves.     Hence,  passing  to  the  shores  of  the  Morca, 
Michieli  spread  similar  destruction ;  and  in  his  homeward 
voyage,  while  ascending  the  Adriatic,  he  chastised  some 
rebellious  towns  in  Dalmatia,  and  taught  the  citizens  of  Se- 
l^enigo,  Trau,  Spalatro,  and  Belgrade  how  dancrerous   it 

D3 


"p;*''^*! 


42 


AFFRAY  IN  CORFU. 


was  to  trifle  with  fidelity.  In  this  wide-visiting  devastation, 
Michieli  appears  not  to  have  encountered  a  single  check. 
Whether  on  his  return  to  Venice  he  abdicated  his  power,  or 
died  in  possession  of  it,  has  been  disputed ;  but  it  is  not 
doubtful  that  he  had  fully  earned  and  merited  the  expres- 
sive title  with  which  the  epitaph  engraven  on  his  monu- 
ment  commences,  Terror  Grcecorum  jacct  hie. 

Under  his  successor,  Pietro  Polani,  we  read  of  a  short 
and  successful  campaign  against  Padua,  remarkable 
^'  ^'     only  as  being  the  first  occasion  on  which  the  Vene- 
^  ^^^'    tians,  already  increased  in  power  far  disproportionate 
to  their  native  population,  employed  mercenaries  in  their 
service.     Another  Comnenus,  Manu.-.l,   had    succeeded  to 
the  Greek  throne,  and  the  empire  was  endangered 
^'^'     by  the  invasion  of  Roger  of  Sicily  who  had  occupied 
^^^^*    Corfu,  pillaged  the  neighbouring  coasts,  and,  after 
forcing  the  Dardanelles,  had  threatened  to  burn  Constanti- 
nople ttself.     Manuel,  in  his  distress  willing  to  forget  recent 
dissensions,  eagerly  sought  to  renew  more  ancient  alliances 
with  Venice  ;  and  the   republic  had  powerful  motives  to 
assist  in  repressing  an  active  and  ambitious  prince  possess- 
ing a  large  tract  bordering  on  the  Adriatic,  and  already  es- 
tablished in  the  Levant.     The  offers  of  Manuel,  therefore, 
were  accepted  with  a  ready  ear  ;  for,  exclusively  of  the  jea- 
lousy with  which  the  Venetians  naturally  regarded   the 
King  of  Sicily,  they  were  allured  by  new  commercial  privi- 
leges which  opened  to  them  the  hitherto  forbidden  ports  of 
Cyprus,  Candia,  and  Megalopolis. 

Corfu  was  speedily  recovered,  but  not  without  occurrences 
which  threatened  an  immediate  dissolution  of  the  alliance,  and 
evinced  the  insecurity  of  the  basis  on  which  it  rested.  The 
camp  was  a  scene  of  perpetually  renewed  discord ;  and  on  one 
occasion,  the  Venetians,  worsted  in  a  general  fray,  retreated 
to  a  little  islaiK.1,  Asteris,  between  Ithaca  and  Cephalonia, 
whence  they  attacked  and  burned  many  of  the  Greek  ships. 
Having  captured  the  imperial  galley  itself,  they  decorated 
the  state-cabin  with  drapery  of  cloth  of  gold  and  rich  purple 
tapestries;  and  selecting  a  vagabond  Ethiopian,  distin- 
guished for  his  ugliness  and  enormities  as  a  representative 
of  Manuel,  they  carried  him  in  mock  triumph  round  the 
fleet  and  celebrated  his  coronation.  The  ridicule  was 
chiefly  directed  against  Manuel's  swarthinrss  of  complexion ; 


PATRIARCH  OF  AQUILEIA. 


43 


A.  D. 

1156. 


and  the  Byzantine  historian,  from  whom  we  derive  these 
particulars,  is  deeply  concerned  for  the  honour  of  his  master's 
personal  appearance.  "Manuel,"  says  Nicetas,  "had  not 
yellow  locks  like  a  cornfield ;  his  hue  was  dark  and  sun- 
burnt, yet  it  was  the  hue  of  the  bride  in  the  Canticles, 
black,  but  comely."* 

In  the  early  part  of  the  reign  of  Vitale  Michieli  II.,  who 
succeeded  Polani,  the  disputes  between  the  holy  see 
and  the  Western  empire  were  agitating  all  Christen- 
dom ;  and  on  the  first  double  election  to  the  pope- 
dom, the  Venetians,  anxious  to  diminish  the  increasing  pre- 
ponderance of  Frederic  Barbarossa  in  Italy,  espoused  the 
cause  of  Alexander  III.  in  opposition  to  Victor  IV.,  who 
was  supported  by  the  emperor.     The    troops   of  Padua, 
Vicenza,  Ferrara,  and  Verona,  under  the  emperor's  orders, 
immediately  laid  waste  Loredo  and  portions  of  the  Milanese  ; 
and  while  the  Venetian  forces  were  occupied  in  repelling 
this  aggression,  Ulric,  the  patriarch  of  Aquileia,  profited  by 
their  absence  to  revive  an  ancient  feud.     The  hatred  of  the 
church  of  Aquileia  against  that  of  Grado,  which  it  considered 
as   an   unauthorized   intruder   upon   its   rights,  had  been 
transmitted  undiminished  through  a  course  of  more  than 
six  centuries  ;  and  Ulric,  inheriting  this  feeling  in  its  utter- 
most bitterness,  gladly  seized  an  opportunity  of  plundering 
his  defenceless  rival.     Heading  his  canons,  the  patriarch 
crossed  over  to  Grado,  and  was  conveying  its  booty  to  his 
vessels  when  he  found  himself  unexpectedly  arrested  by  a 
Venetian  fleet.     He  obtained  his  liberty ;  but  it  was  at  a 
price  to  which  he  would,  probably,  have  preferred  the  most 
costly  expenditure  of  treasure ;  for  the  ransom  which  he 
was  compelled  to  pay  conveyed  his   memory  in  ridicule 
almost  to  our  own  times,  and  materially  contributed  to  per- 
petuate the  popular  Venetian  contempt  for  the  spiritual 
dignity  of  Aquileia.     Every  year,  on  the  Carnival  Thurs- 
day, the  patriarch  was  obliged  to  send  to  Venice  a  bull  and 
twelve  boar  pigs,  a  deputation  representing  himself  and  his 
chapter.    The  ambassadors  were  paraded  through  the  prin- 
cipal streets,  and  then  slaughtered  with  mock  solemnity  in 
the  presence  of  the  doge,  who  distributed  their  carcasses 
among  the  people. 


Manuel  Comaenus,  ii.  5. 


44 


OUTRAGE  OF  MANUEL  COMNENUS. 


The  holyday  on  which  this  mummery  was  exhibited 
{Giavedi  grassoy  or,  as  it  is  called  in  the  Venetian  dialect, 
Ziobbagrasso)  was  celebrated  with  particular  festivity; 
among  other  annual  spectacles  exhibited  to  the  populace 
was  the  descent  of  a  volligeur  from  a  rope  fixed  to  the 
summit  of  the  Campamle  (a  height  of  three  hundred  and 
forty  feet)  to  a  balcony  in  the  ducal  palace ;  and  some 
marvellous  feats  of  balancing  {Le  Forze  d'Ercolc),  in  which 
a  pyramid  of  tumblers  was  raised  on  each  other's  shoulders 
for  six  stages,  in  the  last  of  which,  the  crowning-man  stood 
upon  his  head.  Besides  attending  the  procession  of  the 
bull,  the  doge  had  a  yet  more  martial  duty  to  perform  on  this 
festival.  In  the  great  hall  of  the  palace  {La  Sala  del 
Piovego)  was  arranged  some  pasteboard  scenery  represent- 
ing the  castles  of  such  lords  of  Friuli  as  had  espoused  the 
cause  of  the  patriarch.  These  fortresses  were  attacked  by 
the  doge  and  his  council,  and  beaten  down  by  them  with 
clubs ;  and  till  the  reign  of  Andrea  Gritti,  in  1 524,  each 
^succeeding  prince  submitted  to  enact  the  chief  part  in  this 
buffoonery.  After  that  time,  nothing  further  was  required 
but  that  he  should  be  spectator  of  the  bull-bait  (for  such  in 
latter  days  it  became)  from  the  balcony  of  the  red  columns. 

But  events  of  a  far  graver  character  were  impending  over 
Venice.  The  Sicilians  and  Venetians  were  now  almost 
equal  objects  of  alarm  to  Manuel  Comnenus  ;  and,  regard- 
less of  the  widely  different  relations  in  which  each  had 
recently  stood  to  his  empire,  he  sought  to  embroil  them 
with  each  other ;  and  proffered  his  alUance  to  that  party 
which  would  commence  the  quarrel.  The  hand  of  his 
daughter  was  tendered  to  the  King  of  Sicily,  and  was 
refused.  Nor  were  the  emperor's  negotiations  with  the 
republic  more  successful,  for  her  government  was  well 
acquainted  with  the  value  of  a  commercial  treaty  which  it 
had  obtained  from  Sicily,  and  which  had  been  inviolably 
observed.  The  doge,  apprehensive  of  measures  of  violence 
to  which  Manuel  might  perhaps  be  hurried  by  disappoints 
ment,  issued  an  order  that  all  Venetian  ships  and  residents 
should  immediately  withdraw  from  the  imperial  territories ; 
and  Manuel,  in  reprisal  for  this  interruption  of  commerce, 
invaded  Dalmatia ;  at  the  same  time  disavowing  all  hostile 
intentions,  and  affirming  that,  upon  the  re-establishment  of 
former  confidential  relations,  he  would  not  hesitate  to  coun- 


BANK  OF  VENICE. 


45 


f 


termand  his  troops.  The  Venetians,  anxious  for  peace, 
and  imbued  more  with  the  spirit  of  merchants  than  that  of 
either  statesmen  or  soldiers,  fell  into  the  snare ;  and  no 
sooner  had  their  traders  returned  and  their  vessels  re-entered 
the  Greek  ports,  than  the  first  were  thrown  into  prison  and 
the  second  confiscated.  From  Nicetas,  we  learn  that  the 
chief  sufferers,  under  this  violent  breach  of  the  law  of 
nations,  were  the  provincial  residents.  Most  of  those  who 
traded  in  the  capital,  especially  such  as  were  unmarried, 
effected  their  escape  ;  having  embarked  by  night  in  a  three- 
masted  vessel,  the  largest  which  had  hitherto  been  built. 
The  Greeks  pursued  them  with  a  numerous  and  well-anned 
flotilla :  yet  the  Venetians,  from  the  superior  loftiness  of 
their  ship,  from  her  extreme  rapidity  of  sailing  before  a  fair 
wind,  and,  not  least,  from  the  courage  and  gallant  bearing 
of  the  ciew,  baflied  all  attacks,  and  outstripping  their 
pursuers,  gained  the  Adriatic  in  safety. 

The  consternation  excited  at  Venice  when  this  unlooked- 
for  intelligence  arrived  was  to  be  equalled  only  by  the  pro- 
found and  general  resentment  which  inflamed  all  ranks. 
The  populace  with  loud  cries  demanded  war ;  the  streets 
echoed  with  execrations  against  the  Greeks  ;  and  every  hand 
was  employed  in  equipping  an  armament.  One  entire  family, 
the  Justiniani  (Venice  contained  not  a  more  ancient  or  more 
noble  house),  reviving  the  self-devotion  of  the  Roman  Fabii, 
volunteered  their  whole  race  to  the  service  of  their  country, 
and  embarked  a  hundred  combatants  in  her  defence.  The 
young  eagerly  thronged  to  partake  of  the  dangers  of  the 
expedition ;  and  those  too  far  advanced  in  years  to  bear 
their  share  in  arms,  in  order  that  they  might  retain  as  little 
as  possible  in  common  with  their  detested  enemy,  shaved 
their  beards,  in  abhorrence  of  the  opposite  fashion  prevalent 
among  the  Greeks.  Still,  money  was  wanting  to  the  public 
coffers  ;  and  the  doge,  having  exhausted  every  other  financial 
expedient,  was  obliged  to  have  recourse  to  a  forced  loan 
from  the  most  opulent  citizens,  each  being  required  to  con- 
tribute according  to  his  ability.  On  this  occasion,  the 
chamber  of  loans  (La  Camera  degP  imprestiti)  was  estab- 
lished. To  this  chamber  the  contributors  were  made 
creditors,  at  an  annual  interest  of  four  per  cent. ;  a  rate  far 
below  the  standard  of  the  age.  These  creditors,  in  process 
of  time,  were  incorporated  into  a  company  for  the  manago- 


^i  1 


"-S* 
,•*.-.  t^/.* 


bfaiiuuiMieifesjaSSOi' 


46 


ARMAMENT  AGAINST  CONSTANTINOPLE 


ment  of  their  joint  concerns ;  and  thus  formed  the  basis 
upon  which  afterward  was  erected  ihe  Bank  of  Venice^  the 
most  ancient  estabhshnient  of  its  kind,  and  the  model  of  all 
similar  institutions.  The  method  in  which  the  above-named 
loan  was  repaid  is  believed  to  be  the  earliest  instance  on 
record  of  the  funding  system,  and  the  first  example  in  any 
country  of  a  permanent  national  debt. 

Scarcely  three  months  had  expired  before  Vitale  found 
himself  at  the  head  of  one  hundred  and  twenty 
^  *  *  well-manned  vessels ;  and,  fired  with  the  hope  of 
vengeance,  sailed  for  Dalmatia.  There,  such  cities  as 
had  revolted  were  most  severely  punished.  The  lives  of  the 
Ragusans  were  spared,  at  the  intercession  of  their  arch- 
bishop ;  but  it  was  on  condition  of  subservience  in  spiritual 
matters  to  the  patriarch  of  Grado  (provided  the  papal  consent 
could  be  obtained),  and  of  the  destruction  of  theif  fortifica- 
tions. On  the  appearance  of  the  fleet  otf  Negropont,  the 
governor  of  that  island  approached  the  doge  in  lowliest  sup- 
plication. He  represented  that  the  intentions  of  his  master 
were,  undoubtedly,  pacific  ;  that  the  strong  measures  which 
he  had  taken  could  have  resulted  only  from  false  informa- 
tion of  hostile  designs  on  the  part  of  the  republic ;  that  he 
would  pledge  himself  for  the  most  entire  and  satisfactory 
atonement ;  and  that,  meantime,  it  would  be  far  wiser  to 
seek  explanation  by  an  embassy  than  by  any  hasty  violence 
to  plunge  both  nations  headlong  into  the  calamities  of  war. 
The  artifice  of  the  wily  Greek  prevailed ;  envoys  were 
despatched  to  Constantinople,  and  the  doge  retired  to  winter- 
quarters  at  Scio. 

Delay  was  the  sole  object  of  Manuel  in  admitting  this  em- 
bassy ;  and  his  ministers,  deeply  versed  in  the  lingering  pro- 
cesses of  negotiation,  continually  embarrassed  the  discus- 
sions by  new  and  unexpected  questions.  Every  hour  thus 
gained,  if  it  did  not  positively  diminish  the  strength  of  the 
Venetians,  increased  that  of  their  opponents,  by  affording  a 
longer  time  for  preparation  ;  and,  moreover,  left  an  opening 
for  the  occurrence  of  some  favourable  chance  which  might 
altogether  remove  their  danger.  Such  a  chance  did  indeed 
occur ;  and  its  consequences,  as  they  far  exceeded  all  cal- 
culation, so  must  they  have  infinitely  surpassed  the  warmest 
hopes  of  the  Greeks.  The  plague  broke  out  in  the  quarters 
at  Scio ;  and  when  the  ambassadors,  wearied  by  repeated 


I 


I 


ITS  DISASTERS. 


47 


procrrtstination,  and  no  longer  perceiving  any  clew  which 
might  guide  them  through'  the  ever-lengthening  maze  of 
diplomacy,  returned  to  announce  their  unsuccessful  mission, 
they  found  the  flourishing  camp  which  they  had  quitted  but 
a  few  short  montris  before  changed  into  one  vast  lazar-house. 
Few  of  the  troops  had  escaped  the  deadliest  stroke  of  pesti- 
lence, and  of  those  few  a  very  small  portion  was  still  able 
to  bear  arms.     From  want  of  eflective  numbers  to  man  his 
fleet,  the  doge  had  been  compelled  to  burn  many  of  his  ves- 
sels ;  and  the  further  progress  of  the  enterprise  thus  became 
impossible.    Happy,  indeed,  might  he  consider  himself,  if  he 
were  permitted  to  regain  the  Las[unc  with  the  shattered  relics 
of  his  host.     In  the  Greek  islands,  it  is  scarcely  necessary  to 
look  beyond  natural  causes  and  national  habits  for  the  origin 
of  the  plague  at  any  time  ;  but  a  belief  prevailed,  which, 
even  if  unfounded  on  truth,  at  least  evinces  the  bitterness 
of  animosity  with    which    Manuel  was  regarded,  it  was 
affirmed  that  he  had  resorted  to  the  treacherous  and  dia- 
bolical expedient  of  poisoning  the  waters. 

The  fleet  was  exposed  to  fresh  disasters  in  its  homeward 
voyage.    Partly  from  the  weakness  of  the  crews,  partly  from 
the  unskilfulness  of  those  to  whom  the  pilotage  was  neces- 
sanly  intrusted,  many  ships  were  abandoned  and  destroyed, 
and  many  others  were  wrecked.     That  gorgeous  armament, 
the  pride  of  Venice  and  the  terror  of  the  East,  which  had 
so  recently  filled  the  bosom  of  the  Adriatic  with  its  swelling 
sails,  now  stealthily  crept  along  its  coasts,  reduced  to  little 
more  than  seventeen  unserviceable  barks.     Not  a  family 
throughout  the  capital  was  uninvolved  in  the  general  calam- 
ity.    The  voice  of  mourning  was  heard  in  every  house  ; 
and  of  those  brave  hearts  among  the  Justiniani  which  the 
bond  of  patriot  love  had  knit  together,  as  the  strength  of  a 
single  man,  not  one  now  throbbed  with  life.     Their  resem- 
blance to  the  Fabii  was  destined  to  be  complete.    Like  them, 
they  had  given  all  to  their  country ;  and  all  had  perished 
for  her :  as  with  them,  too,  a  single  root  was  found  for  their 
revival.     With  the  Fahii  it  was  a  boy,  too  green  for  arms, 
who  had  remained  in  Rome  :  a  forgotten  monk,  drawn  from 
the  shade  of  a  cloister  and  released  from  his  vow  of  celi- 
bacy, preserved  to  Venice  a  name  which  was  often  acrain  to 
give  lustre  to  her  annals.  ° 

Calamity  stopped  not  here ;  nor  was  the  plague  left  behind 


48 


MURDER  OF  VITALE. 


THE  FORTY. 


49 


with  the  dead 'at  Scio.     The  dying  conveyed  it  to  Venice, 
amid  whose  crowded  population  it  spread  most  rapidly  and 
destructively.     The  populace,  imbittered  by  the  failure  of 
brilliant  hopes,  smaitini?  under  the  keen  sense  of  unrevenged 
national  wrongs,  and  preyed  upon  by  a  frightful  disease, 
sought  some  object  on  which  to  vent  the  fury  engendered  by 
thet  manifold  causes  of  irritation.     In  the  tempests  of  the 
passions,  as  in  those  of  the  elements,  it  is  to  the  highest 
places,  for  the  most  part,  that  the  thunderbolt  directs  its 
stroke  ;  and  the  doge  was  held  responsible  not  only  for  the 
political  disasters  which  greater  firmness,  perhaps,  might 
have  averted,  but  also  for  the  physical  evils  which  it  exceeded 
any  human  power  to  control.     His  palace  was  beset  by  a 
ferocious  rabble  ;  and  Vitale,  having  fruitlessly  attempted 
in  the  first  instance  to  appease  and  then  to  escape  from  the 
tumult,  fell  beneath  the  rage  of  his  own  citizens.     The 
state,  maddened  by  sedition,  stained  with  the  blood  of  its 
prince,  and  desolated  by  pestilence,  appeared  to  tremble  on 
the  utmost  verge  of  destruction.     It  had,  in  truth,  arrived 
at  one  of  those  great  crises  in  the  history  of  nations,  of 
wlrich  the  result  is  either  total  dissolution  or  rcmvigoration 
with  more  than  former  strength. 


CHAPTER  II. 


FROM  A.  D.  1173  TO  A.  D.  1192. 

New  Constitution — Dissension  between  Pope  Alexander  IIT.  and  the 
Emperor  Frederic  Barbarossa— Siege  of  Aiicona— Heroic  Exploits  and 
Constancy  of  its  Citizens— Its  Relief— Alexander  III.  ai  Venice — Defeat 
of  Barbarossa's  Fleet — Espousal  of  the  Adriatic — Peace  of  Constance 
— Submission  of  the  Emperor  to  the  Pope— Privileges  granted  by 
Alexander  to  Venice — The  Red  Columns — Procurator!  di  San  Marco — 
Avvogadori. 


A.D. 
1173.      XL. 

1178.  XLI. 


DOGES. 

Sebastiano  Ziani. 

Orio  Malipieri — 'abdicates. 


The  frequent  convulsions  which  it  has  hitherto  been  our 
task  to  record  in  the  government  of  Venice  had  not  only 
given  birth  to  numerous  factions,  but,  as  a  still  more  fatal 
consequence,  had  materially  impaired  that  reverence  for 
authority  which  "hedges  in  the  majesty  of  princes,"  and  is 
among  their  truest  and  surest  defences.  So  rudely  and  in- 
artificially  was  the  framework  of  the  Venetian  polity  con- 
structed, that  it  seemed  not  to  admit  any  repair  without  a 
ruinous  disjunction  of  all  its  parts  ;  and  the  sole  remedy  for 
the  unsoundness  of  a  single  member  was  found  in  an  opera- 
tion which  endangered  the  whole  fabric.  The  chief  fault 
arose  from  the  unmeasured  excess  of  power  with  which  the 
doge  had  originally  been  invested.  WITolly  irresponsible 
and  unchecked,  it  is  little  a  matter  of  surprise  that  this 
magistrate  frequently  abused  his  colossal  strength ;  and 
whenever  he  did  so,  revolt  and  violence  were  the  only  re- 
sources open  to  the  oppressed,  who  had  not  yet  been  gifted 
with  more  gentle  and  more  legal  weapons  from  which  they 
might  derive  protection. 

One  authority  only,  besides  that  of  the  doge,  appears  to 
have  been  recognised  at  tlus  early  period ;  a  tribunal  of 
whose  origin  and  positive  duties  little  can  now  be  told,  but 

Vol.  I.— E 


Cisi^SIh-A  j^Af  tt>  £«,  - 


-et-aa  i»**tji.'- 


»  ♦>■«  A/aadliVBh--'.'rf.gi 


'»Jt»    -  f'-Tn  II  J  rfff'i.MlftirtMfni 


;L^^i&^^^sLa^^i 


50 


MODE  OF  ELECTING  A  DOGE* 


which,  from  the  number  of  its  members,  bore  the  name  of 
the  Forty  {I  Qtiaranta).  Whatever  might  be  its  usual  func* 
tions  (which  probably  seldom  exceeded  those  of  judicial  ad- 
ministration), being  the  only  permanent  body  known  to  the 
state,  it  possessed  for  the  moment,  at  a  season  of  anarchy 
like  that  which  succeeded  the  assassination  of  Michieli,  a 
most  important  and  paramount  influence  ;  and  this  influence 
was  exercised,  during  the  short  duration  of  power  now 
afforded  it,  in  producing  an  entire  change  in  the  elements 
and  constitution  of  government.  The  XL.  may  be  con- 
sidered as  representatives  of  the  chief  families  in  Venice ; 
and,  as  such,  no  less  averse  from  a  popular  than  from  a 
despotic  sway,  equally  hostile  to  the  rule  of  the  many  and 
of  one.  It  was  to  strike  at  the  root  of  both  these  fonTis, 
and  to  raise  in  their  stead  the  domination  of  its  own  caste, 
that  the  eftbrts  of  this  body  were  now  successfully  directed. 

Hitherto  the  choice  of  a  doge  had  been  vested,  either 
ostensibly  or  virtually,  in  the  suflfrages  of  the  whole  assembled 
people.  In  many  instances  it  is  plain  that  the  prince  was 
elected  by  acclamation ;  and  even  if  superior  worth  or  wealth, 
or  secret  influence  of  any  other  kind,  at  any  time  enabled 
a  candidate  to  dispense  with  the  strict  form  of  soliciting 
votes  at  a  general  assembly,  it  was  not  till  he  had  been  pre- 
sented before  the  citizens,  had  solemnly  sworn  to  govern 
them  discreetly  and  justly,  and  had  been  carried  in  the 
seat  of  honour  {it  pozzo)  romid  the  Piazza  di  San  Marco, 
to  receive  their  gratulations  of  assent  which  supplied  the 
direct  tendering  of  votes,  that  he  was  conveyed  to  the  palace 
and  circled  with  the  ducal  cornOy  or  berretta,*  at  the  head 
of  the  giants'  stairs.  This  licentious  and  irregular  process, 
which,  while  it  bore  some  outward  semblance  of  liberty, 
was  in  truth  adapted  to  assist  the  views  of  factious  and 
ambitious  individuals,  was  now  abolished  for  one  by  no  means 
better  calculated  to  establish  genuine  freedom.     A  law  was 

*  The  ducal  bonnet  is  probably  of  Eastern  origin.  The  ball  with 
which  it  terminated  was  a  diamoiul  of  great  price,  in  the  centre  was  an 
inestimable  ruby,  and  it  was  bordered  wiih  a  rich  edging  of  pearls  and 
other  jewels.  Every  thing  connected  with  Venetian  etiquette  was  em- 
blematical of  some  mystery :  thus  the  corno  was  not  placed  on  the  head 
of  the  newly  elected  doge  till  he  had  ascended  the  last  step  of  the  giants' 
stairs;  in  order  to  show  that  he  could  not  arrive  at  the  highest  dignity 
without  having  passed  step  by  step  through  all  the  lower  charges  of  the 
state. 


THE  GREAT  COUNCIL  AND  SENATE. 


51 


passed,  transferring  the  right  of  election  into  the  hands  of  a 
select  few.  Eleven  citizens  were  named  by  whom  this 
choice  was  to  be  determined  ;  and,  in  the  first  instance,  they 
fulfilled  their  duties  nobly,  and  distinguished  themselves  by 
a  signal  instance  of  high-minded  abstinence  and  integrity. 
To  render  any  election  complete,  a  majority  of  nine  voices 
out  of  the  eleven  was  required  ;  and  these  were  found  united 
in  favour  of  one  of  their  own  body,  Orio  Malipieri.  Far, 
however,  from  coveting  the  proflered  sceptre,  he  modestly 
pleaded  his  own  incapacity  to  administer  it,  and  urged  his 
brethren  to  look  again  for  some  one  of  more  vigorous  facul- 
ties and  of  wealthier  fortunes. 

Sebastiano  Ziani,  the  citizen  whom  he  named  as  uniting 
both  these  qualifications,  was  approved  and  pre-  ^  ^ 
sented  as  their  future  sovereign  to  the  people,  by  ^J^^ 
whom  this  invasion  of  their  former  privileges  was 
neither  resented  nor  opposed.  Perhaps  this  tranquillity 
arose  from  the  jealous  precautions  which  had  been  directed 
no  less  against  the  preponderance  of  the  chief  magistrate 
than  of  the  populace  ;  for  the  prerogative  of  the  new  doge 
had  been  most  materially  curtailed  before  he  was  advanced 
to  his  dignity.  To  escape  the  necessity  of  any  frequent 
convention  of  the  general  assemblies,  always  tumultuous 
and  inefl[icicnt  for  the  discharge  of  public  business,  a  great 
council  of  four  hundred  and  eighty  members  was  proposed 
as  a  substitute  for  these  larger  meetings,  w  hich,  though  not 
immediately  suppressed,  were  thus  stripped  of  all  essential 
power,  and  gradually  fell  into  desuetude.  This  council, 
formed  indiscriminately  from  the  mass  of  citizens,  was  to 
be  renewed  annually,  and  its  appointment  was  to  be  vested 
in  twelve  electors,  themselves  chosen  annually  ;  two  from 
each  of  the  six  districts  (scsticri)  into  which  the  capital  had 
been  divided  ;  for  it  was  only  on  the  deficiency  of  suHicient 
numbers  in  Venice  itself — a  case  not  very  likely  to  occur, — 
that  the  other  islands  were  invited  to  assist  with  a  supply 
of  members  for  any  department  of  government.  From  this 
body,  too  unwieldy,  as  it  was  conceived,  for  ordinary  discus- 
sions, a  committee  of  sixty,  under  the  title  of  a  senate,  was 
appointed  to  assist  the  doge,  on  the  same  principle  as  those 
advisers,  the  pregadi,  whom  it  had  hitherto  been  customary 
that  he  should  nominate  and  summon  at  his  own  will  on 
occasions  of  great  moment.     A  giunta  of  twenty-five  or 


53 


THE  SIGNORY  AND  COLLEGIO. 


thirty  assistants,  whose  commission  ceased  at  the  termina- 
tion of  the  matter  on  which  they  were  summoned  to  delib- 
erate, was  sometimes  added  to  the  senate  ;  and  in  the  year 
1435  its  numbers  were  doubled  by  the  establishment  of  a 
permanent  giunta  of  sixty.     In  the  end,  by  the  admission 
of  certain   magistrates  who  during  their  period  of  office 
were  entitled  to  scats,  the  senate  amounted  to  three  hundred 
members.     To  complete  the  executive,  each  district  of  the 
city  now  also  appointed  one  member  of  a  more  private  coun- 
cil, which  together  with  the  doge  formed  what  was  termed 
the  signory.     Among  these  six  magistrates   the  supreme 
authority  became  virtually  divided  ;  for  without  their  advice 
and  concurrence  the  orders  of  the  doge  were  to  be  wholly 
null  and  disregarded.     The  collegio^  in  which  these  powers 
were  ultimately  lodged  in  after-times  when  the  constitution 
became  matured,  consisted  of  twenty-six   members  ;  the 
doge,  his  six  counsellors,  the  three  ca-pi  di  quaranta^  and  six- 
teen savii  of  diflferent  classes  chosen  by  the  senate.     Of 
these  three  great  divisions  of  government  the  grand  council 
may  be  considered  as  possessing  the  sovereignty,  the  senate 
as  forming  the  deliberative  body,  and  the  co'llcgio  as  ad- 
ministering the  executive  department.     These  various  inno- 
vations were  introduced  before  the  election  of  Ziani ;  and 
as  they  seemed  to  demand  a  more  formal  sanction  than  they 
could  receive  from  the  XL.,  to  whom  they  owed  their  birth, 
the  first  act  required  of  him  after  his  accession  was  a  solemn 
abandonment  of  the  former  unlimited  prerogative   and  a 
recognition  of  the  new  laws.     The  great  change  by  which 
Venice  had  formerly  passed  at  one  step  from  democratic 
equality  to  despotism  was  not  effected  more  rapidly  or  more 
tranquilly  than  her  present  transition  from  despotism  to 
oligarchy.     Each  succeeding  year,  as  we  shall  perceive, 
diminished  the  small  remnant  of  power  which  the  doge  was 
permitted  to  retain;  and  henceforward  he  roust  be  con- 
sidered as  little  else  than  the  first  puppet  of  the  state,  whom 
the  leading  families  were  content  should  be  tricked  out  with 
a  title  and  a  crown  for  purposes  not  of  government  but  of 
pageantry. 

Ziani  succeeded  to  a  troubled  throne.  In  the  East  the 
terror  which  Venice  once  inspired  had  died  away  in  con- 
sequence of  her  recent  great  naval  disaster ;  and  Manuel, 
With  that  ferocity  which  cowardice  for  the  most  part  ex- 


VICTOR  IV. ALEXANDER  III. 


53 


hibits  when  relieved  from  alarm,  had  wreaked  his  vengeance 
upon  the  state  before  which  he  had  hitherto  trembled,  by 
acts  of  personal  cruelty  inflicted  upon  such  of  her  subjects 
as  their  unhappy  chance  placed  within  his  grasp.  To  one 
of  these  outrages  (if  it  be  true,  the  most  atrocious  he  could 
commit)  we  shall  have  occasion  to  revert  hereafter.  All  of 
them  were  regarded  silently  by  the  Venetians;  among 
whom  the  growing  spirit  of  commerce  was  fast  extinguish- 
ing the  purer  love  of  national  glory.  Peace  was  necessary 
for  the  continuance  of  their  oriental  traffic ;  and  for  this 
gainful  but  ignoble  boon  they  did  not  hesitate  to  offer  the 
most  ignominious  sacrifices.  Nevertheless  their  solicita- 
tions were  received  with  coldness,  and  perhaps  would  have 
been  wholly  rejected,  had  it  not  been  for  the  respect  ex- 
torted by  their  allies  ;  and  it  was  only  in  order  to  avert  any 
hostility  which  the  King  of  8icily  might  be  encouraged  to 
threaten  at  the  suggestion  of  the  Venetian  merchants,  that 
Manuel  agreed  to  pay  them  a  compensation  for  the  property 
which  he  had  confiscated. 

The  state  of  Italy  was  no  less  a  subject  of  anxiety  than 
that  of  the  East.  On  the  death  of  Pope  Adrian  IV., 
in  1159,  the  Christian  world,  as  we  have  already  ^'^' 
hinted,  had  been  scandalized  by  a  schism  in  the  pon-  ^^^^* 
tificate ;  and  a  double  election  called  two  successors  to 
infallibility  and  the  chair  of  St.  Peter.  Victor  IV.,  though 
nominated  by  the  suffrages  of  only  two  cardinals  in  addi- 
tion to  his  own  vote,  found  a  more  powerful  support  in  the 
arms  of  the  emperor  Frederic  Barbarossa  than  he  could 
have  derived  from  the  unanimous  voices  of  the  whole  sacred 
college :  and  his  competitor,  Alexander  III.,  the  more 
legitimate  vicar  of  Christ,  after  having  been  exposed  to  per- 
sonal outrage  during  his  attempted  investiture  and  sub- 
jected to  a  short  imprisonment,  was  indebted  for  his  libera- 
tion to  a  tumult  of  the  Roman  populace  by  whom  he  was 
befriended.  Chased  from  Rome,  Alexander  passed  the 
greater  part  of  his  future  Ufe  in  suffering  and  exile ;  yet 
the  persecution  of  the  emperor,  constant  dependence  upon 
the  precarious  bounty  of  foreign  princes  for  safety  and  fre- 
quently for  subsistence,  renewed  disappointments,  perpetual 
defeats,  the  threatening  aspect  of  his  enemies,  the  imbe- 
cility, if  not  the  infidelity,  of  his  friends — none  of  these  evils 
had  shaken  his  uncompromising  firmness  of  purpose  :  and 

E2 


54 


FREDERIC  BARBAROSSA. 


>! 


the  same  fearless  enerjry  which  enabled  him,  "while  sur- 
rounded by  all  these  difficulties,  to  contend  with,  to  triumph 
over,  and  to  disgrace  our  English  Henry,  was  in  the  end  to 
place  the  emperor  Barbarossa  equally  under  his  spiritual 
dominion.     Not  long  after  the  commencement  of  the  feud 
between  the  pope  and  the  emperor,  the  chief  cities  of  Lom- 
bardy,  oppressed  by  the  yoke  of  Barbarossa,  formed  a  league 
against  him ;   and  the  power  of  this   alliance  was 
1  l*fi7     greatly  increased  by  the  failure  of  an  attempt  on 
'    Rome,  which  he  had  undertaken  in  order  to  secure  a 
new  election  to  the  pontificate.     It  was  towards  the  end  of 
July  that  he  had  commenced  this  siege,  and  the  pestilential 
vapours  of  the  Campagna,  exhaled  during  the  greatest  heats 
of  summer,  in  the  autumn  began  to  spread  frightful  ravages 
among  his  troops.     The  disease  commonly  resulting  from 
malaria^  so  destructive  to  the  natives  themselves,  raged  with 
far  greater  fury  amid  strangers  unaccustomed  to  the  climate ; 
and  imagination  was  busy  in  representing  this  contagion  as 
a  special  judgment  from  Heaven,  in  reprisal  for  that  sacri- 
legious daring  which   had  violated    the    chosen    seat   of 
religion.     The  rude  soldier  who  during  the  heat  of  battle 
shrank  not  from  any  deed,  however  ferocious,  now,  when 
enfeebled  by  sickness,  looked  back  with  superstitious  terror 
upon  the  impiety  which  had  fired  the  church  of  Sta.  Maria ; 
and  considered  the  slow  poison  of  the  marshes,  under  which 
his  strength  was  wasting  away,  as  a  Divine  visitation  for  the 
overthrow  of  the  images  of  the  Redeemer  and  of  St.  Peter, 
which  he  had  levelled  in  the  sacred  precincts  of  the  Vatican. 
The  ecclesiastics  were  far  from  backward  in  encouraging 
a  delusion  so  friendly  to  their  authority ;  and  these  physical 
and  mental  causes,  when  in  combination  with  each  other, 
produced  a  result  more  to  be  dreaded  than  all  the  open 
hazards  of  war.     Frederic  beheld  his  army  perishing  in- 
sensibly, untouched  by  the  sword.     The  most  illustrious 
of  his  companions  in  arms  had  fallen  by  an  unseen  stroke. 
Almost  all  the  chief  ofliicers  of  his  court,  princes  and  names 
allied  to  princes,  the  leaders  of  both  the  great  factions,  the 
Guelphs   and   Ghibelins,  by  which  his  native   dominions 
were  agitated,  and  whom  with  consummate  prudence  and 
dexterity  he  had  united  under  himself  in  his  present  enter- 
prise, had  become  victims  to  the  pestilence  ;  and  more  than 
two  thousand  cavaliers  of  noble  blood,  together  with  a  pro- 


SIEGE  OF  ANCONA. 


55 


portionate  number  of  their  followers,  swelled  the  amount  to 
a  fearful  total.  No  hope  was  left  but  an  instant  abandon- 
ment of  these  plains  of  death.  Taking  hostages,  therefore, 
from  the  Romans,  and  gathering  the  few  troops  which  sur- 
vived, he  hastened  through  Tuscany,  and  retreated  on  Pavia. 
There,  in  spite  of  the  superior  number  of  the  hostile  Lom- 
bards by  whom  he  was  surrounded,  he  maintained  himself 
during  winter  without  exposure  to  the  unequal  risk  of  a 
battle  ;  and  in  the  following  spring,  perceiving  that  his 
strength  must  be  regained  not  in  Italy  but  in  Germany, 
he  withdrew  in  secret  and  in  disguise  with  a  handful  of 
attendants. 

The  league  of  the  free  cities  had  gained  much  additional 
strength  by  Frederic's  discomfiture ;  and  it  required  a 
preparation  of  five  years  before  he  could  venture  to  renew 
hostilities  against  them.  During  that  period  it  might  be 
supposed  that  the  alliance  of  Milan,  Brescia,  Mantua,  Bo- 
logna, Padua,  Treviso,  and  Verona,  if  it  were  only  from 
their  vicinity,  must  have  presented  strong  attractions  to 
Venice,  hitherto  a  neutral  spectator  of  the  contest ;  and  it  is 
not  without  surprise  that  we  find  the  republic  entering  upon 
the  ^ar  for  the  first  time  under  the  banners  of  the  emperor. 
Ancona  was  not  a  party  to  the  Lombard  league ;  but  the 
protection  which  she  received  from  Manuel  Conmenus  gave 
umbrage  to  Frederic,  and  her  commercial  prosperity,  con- 
nected with  this  alliance,  excited  the  jealousy  of  the  Vene- 
tians :  so  that  when  Christian,  archbishop-elect  of  Mayence 
and  arch-chancellor  of  the  empire,  to  whom  Frederic  had 
delegated  the  conduct  of  his  affairs  in  Italy,  determined  to 
attack  that  city  by  land,  the  Venetians  promised  their 
assistance  in  the  blockade  of  the  port.  The  chronicler 
Buoncompagno,  who  has  detailed  the  occurrences  of  this 
siege,*  can  scarcely  find  language  sufficiently  opprobrious 
in  which  to  express  his  abhorrence  of  Christian.  He  spealvs 
of  him  as  a  kite  gorged  by  rapine,  and  as  a  crow  every 
where  snuffing  the  fumes  of  carrion  and  glutting  himself 
en  destruction. 

The  bold  promontory  which  shelters  Ancona  on  the  north 
is  inaccessible  from  the  sea  ;  and  the  city  itself,  reclining 
on  the  side  of  a  hill  which  forms  a  semicircular  bay,  offers 

♦Apud  Muratori  VI. 


56 


EXPLOIT  OF  STAMURA. 


even  from  the  land  but  one  approach  to  its  beautiful  and 
tranquil  amphitheatre.     The  entrance  to  the  port  is  guarded 
by  a  superb  mole  ;  a  work  of  Roman  magnihcence,  formed 
of  hucre  stones,  bound  together  by  iron,  and  rismg  to  a  con- 
siderable height  above  the  level  of  the  sea :  a  marble  arch 
of  triumph,    which   still  forms   its   entrance,  records  the 
memory  of  its  founder  Trajan.     Yet  the  defence  afforded  by 
this  mole  to  the  harbour  was  by  no  means  complete,  either 
against  man  or  the  elements.     One  wind,  the  focarcsc,  sel- 
dom arose  without  occasioning  much  damage  to  such  ves- 
sels as  trusted  to  their  anchorage ;  and  the  fortihcations 
were  so  inefficiently  constructed,  that  the  Venetian  galleys 
were  able  without  risk  or  opposition  to  moor  themselves  i*i 
the  face  of  the  very  quays.     Meantime  the  German  army 
ravatred  the  neighbouring  territory,  and  succeeded  in  not 
only^destroying  all  means  of  sustenance,  but  in  gradually 
circumscribing  the  garrison,  which  at  first  attempted  niore 
active  warfare  in  the  field,  within  the  narrow  compass  ol  its 
walls.     The  city  was  ill  prepared  for  a  siege  which  had  not 
been  foreseen ;  and,  in  addition  to  the  evils  likely  to  arise 
from  want  of  precaution,  the  ordinary  supplies  had  proved 
deficient  from  a  bad  preceding  harvest.     Unable  to  ejude 
the  strict  blockade  of  the  Venetians,  the  garrison  felt  the 
pressure  of  famine  soon  after  their  investment ;   but  they 
maintained  themselves  with  equal  constancy  against  this 
fearful  want  and  the  often-renewed  assaults  oi  their  ene- 
mies.    No  military  operations  appear  more  favourable  to 
deeds  of  individual  bravery   than  those  of  a  siege ;    and 
Buoncompagno    has   noted   several   incidents   of    exalted 
heroism.     On  one  occasion,  while  an  attack  from  the  Ger- 
mans occupied   the   attention  of  the  whole  garrison,  the 
Venetians  also  eflfected  a  landing  on  the  opposite  quarter, 
and  were  advancing  towards  the  city,  when  by  a  vigorous 
charge,  not  of  regular  troops,  but  of  such  inhabitants  as 
lived  nearest  the  shore,  they  were  repulsed  and  driven  m 
confusion  upon  their   military   engines.     Rallying   under 
these,  they  were  protected  by  a  sleet  of  stones  and  arrows, 
which  appeared  to  forbid  the  eager  hope  of  their  pursuers, 
who  at  first  threatened  to  fire  the  beleaguering  works.     But 
the  check  was  not  of  long  continuance.     Reckless  of  all 
danger  and  as  if  bearing  a  charmed  life,  a  woman,  widowed, 
perhaps,  during  the  siege  (her  name  deserves  remembrance, 


)i 


I 


ATTEMPT  UPON  THE  VENETIAN  FLEET.    57 

it  was  Stamura),  rushed  forward  with  a  lighted  torch.  Her 
peril  was  scarcely  less  from  the  weapons  of  her  own 
countrymen  than  from  those  of  her  enemies;  yet  amiS 
both    unconcerned  and  uninjured,  she  set  fire  to  a  lofty 

Zh  A  K?  ""'  ^^'"'^  '''  ^^^^  ^i"  ^he  flames  had  chained 
such  a  height  as  made  its  destruction  certain.  The  con- 
flagration  spread  rapidly  along  the  lines,  and  the  who^e 
train  of  engines,  the  formidable  but  unwieldy  artillerv  of 
those  ages,  was  consumed  to  ashes.  ^  ariiiiery  ot 

their^'hr'"'  '^1  '^',  '"'^  ^"^^  *^^"  ^he  Venetians.  Amon^ 
for  t.^f  ^^Ployed  in  the  blockade  was  one  distinguished 
for  Its  enormous  bulk,  and  known  on  that  account^y  the 
appropriate  name  of  the  World  (11  Mondo).  Upon  the 
deck  of  this  gigantic  vessel  toweJs  of  vast  dimens  ons  had 
been  constructed,  and  it  was  regarded  as  the  keen  and 
stronghold  of  the  naval  position.  ^A  priest  of  Ancon^  for^ 
bidden  by  his  vows  from  mingling  in  the  ranks,  yet  hi  I 
mg  for  some  occasion  by  which  he  also  might  evince  his 

or  tms  galley.  Being  an  expert  swimmer  he  gained  the 
prow  bearing  an  axe  between  his  teeth,  before  hf  was  per- 
ceived and  succeeded  in  cutting  throu.rh  the  cableTwS 
moored  the  ship  to  her  anchorage.  Then,  rapidfv  dhi^l^ 
under  water  and  rising  only  at' intervals  ^sTenee7ef 
breath,  he  regained  the  shore,  unharmed  by  the  n^issiles 
which  pursued  him,  amid  the  shouts  and  adn(iratLn  of  his 
exulting  friends.     The  huge  ship  drifted  among  its  lesse 

alter  the  loss  of  all  its  engines  and  much  of  its  stores  and 
lading;  but  dunng  the  alarm  and  confusion  seven  other 
galleys  were  stranded  and  perished.  Meantime!  a  re^u  se 
of  the  Germans  from  the  walls  afforded  a  welcome  sunnlv 
of  food  to  the  besieged  ;  the  flesh,  and  even  the  emrailf of 
several  horses  which  had  been  killed  being  seized  and  de- 
voured with  avidity  by  the  starving  garrison. 
na^Lll  .         ?'.,P''''^^  "^«re  sorely,  the  Anconitans  des- 

L  offer  Ph'  ?       \7  "'''''"''  "  "^""  «^  •'^^^"^^d  discretion, 
to  offer  Christian  the  payment  of  a  large  sum  of  mone-  on 

condition  that  he  would  abandon  the  siege.     The  ne^'otia^ 

tion  was  conducted  in  the  oriental  style  Si  apologue.  ^^Th; 

arch-chancellor,  on  receiving  the  proposition,  Lsked,  in  reply 

whether  that  person  would  not'  deservedi;  be  r^pu^ed^^* 


58 


NEGOTIATION  BY  APOLOGUE. 


fool  who,  having  secured  the  whole  of  a  prize,  consented 
torecrvebut  apart  of  it?    "  Listen,"  he  said,  "to  this  tale 
A  certain  hunte'r,  with  numerous  dogs  beat  about  a  forest 
which  was  the  haunt  of  a  lioness,  the  terror  of  her  neigh- 
Whood.     After   he  had  pursued  her  for  some  time,  not 
Sut  the  loss  of  many  of  his  hounds  and  much  injury  to 
hU  hunting  tackle,  he  held  her  at  bay  in  a  cave  from  which 
tlLe  was  no  possibility  of  escape,  and  wherein  she  must 
needs  parish  by  famine/  The  Uoness,  reduced  to  extremity, 
offered^tems,  and  proposed  to  surrender  one  of  her  paws 
^f  she  ndght  be  permitted  to  go  free.     Tell  me  now,  would 
he  huiUe?  do  wisely  if  he  were  to  let  the  lioness  loose  lor 
he  sake  of  her  paw  l"-"Ia  my  opinion,"  replied  the  envoy^ 
«  the  hunter  should  not  accept  the  paw  smgly  ;  b  t  it  the 
lioness  would  deliver  the  tips  of  her  ears  as  well  as  her 
paw,  then  he  should  consent  to  treat ;  for  m  that  case  he 
would  shortly  have  her  whole  body  at  command.     But  m 
return,  let  me  call  to  your  recollection  the  greediness  of  the 
fowlei-^  who,  having  spread  his  net  and  scattered  his  gram 
for  pigeons,  observed  no  less  than  seven  of  theni  flock  to 
the  bait.     Looking  round  him,  however,  he   forbore  from 
pullincr  the  strings  at  the  moment,  in  the  idle  hope  of  bring- 
na  together  the  numerous  birds  which   he   saw  on  the 
nemhbouring  trees.     But  while  he  was  awaitmg  this  large 
booty  some  hawks  appeared  in  sight,  and  the  pigeons,  satis- 
fied  with  their  meal,  flew  away  unharmed.     Would  not  the 
fowler,  think  you,  have  done  better  if  he  had  been  content 
with  the  seven  pigeons  in  hand,  rather  than  lose  all  by 
speculating  upon  the  multitude  in  the  bush]       The  arch- 
chancellor  was  steeled  against  this  parabolical  logic,  which 
instead  of  convincing  only  tended  to  irritate  him,  and  he 
dismissed  the  ambassador  with  angry  denunciations  of  ven- 
geance. ^  ./•!,• 

Ancona  indeed  had  little  prospect  of  escaping  from  his 
grasp.  The  misery  to  which  she  was  reduced  may  be  esti- 
mated from  the  returns  made  by  commissioners  instructed 
to  search  for  food,  in  order  that  it  might  be  applied  to  the 
public  service.  Their  utmost  exertions,  after  carefully  ex- 
plorina  the  most  secret  hiding-places  in  which  the  avarice 
of  want  might  be  supposed  to  treasure  up  its  hoards,  pro- 
duced no  more  than  five  pecks  of  various  grain.  Yet  the 
city  at  that  moment  contained  no  less  than  twelve  thousand 


I 


FAMINE  IN  ANCONA. 


59 


souls  within  Its  circuit.     Footl  the  most  disgusting  at  other 
times  had  been  greedily  coveted  atid  was  exhausted.    Even 
the  ski7is  of  animals  whose  very  flesh  is  commonly  rejected 
as  unclean,  the  wild-herbs  which  grew  on  the  ramparts,  the 
seaweed  which  was  reputed  poisonous,— all  these  had  been 
tried,  and  all  had  liow  failed.     Whatever  may  be  the  con- 
stancy of  his  endurance,  there  is  still  a  limit  to  the  physical 
powers  of  man ;  and  it  cannot  be  a  matter  of  wonder  if 
nature  sometimes  gave  way  under  this  accumulated  and 
hourly-mcreasmg  wretchedness.      A  sentinel,  worn  with 
hunger,  latigue,  and  watching,  had  sunk  upon  the  ground 
at  his  post,  when  a  young  and  lovely  woman  of  the  noblest 
class  m  the  city,  bearing  an  infant  at  her  breast,  observed 
and  rebuked  his  neglect.     He  replied  that  he  was  perishing 
Irom  famine,  and  already  felt  the  approach  of  death.     "  Fif- 
teen days,"  answered  the  more  than  Roman  matron,  "have 
passed,  during  which  my  life  has  been  barely  supported  by 
loathsome  sustenance,  and  a  mother's  stores  are  beginping 
to  be  dried  up  from  my  babe :  place  your  lips,  however,  upon 
this  bosom,  and  if  aught  yet  remains  there  drink  it,  and  re- 
cover strength  for  the  defence  of  our  country !"   The  soldier, 
shamed  and  animated  by  her  words,  and  Veco<Tnising  and 
respecting  the  dignity  of  her  birth,  no  longer  required  the 
prottered  nutriment.     He  sprang  from  the  ground,  seized 
his  arms,  and  rushing  into  the  enemies'  lines,  proved  his 
vigour  by  slaying  no  less  than  four  combatants  whh  his 
single  hand. 

One  other,  and  a  yet  more  touching  instance  of  the  self- 
devotion  of  female  affection  may  be  produced,  in  striking 
contrast  with  the  unnatural  deed  recorded  of  the  phrensied 
mother  of  Jerusalem,  under  circumstances  of  similar  desti- 
tution and  horror.     A  woman  of  Ancona,  heart-broken  by 
the  exhaustion  of  her  two  sons,  and  hopeless  of  other  relief, 
opened  a  vein  in  her  left  arm ;    and  having  prepared  and 
disguised  the  blood  which  flowed  from  it  with  spices  and 
condiments  (for  these  luxuries  still  abounded,  as  if  to  mock 
the  cravings  of  that  hunger  which  had  slight  need  of  any 
•further  stnnulant  than  its  own  sad  necessity),  presented 
them  with  the  beverage  :  thus  prolonging  the  existence  of 
he^r  children,  like  the  bird  of  which  similar  tenderness  is 
labled,  even  at  the  price  of  that  tide  of  lifo  by  which  her 
own  was  supported. 


si««('i!5ass 


rSSS^ 


60 


RELIEF  OF  ANCONA. 


The  only  slender  hope  now  remnining  to  the  besieged 
was  founded  upon  the  possibility  of  communicating  with 
the  Guelphs  of  Ferrara  and  Romagna ;  and  at  length,  not- 
withstanding the  vigilance  of  the  blockade,  three  chosen 
messengers  passed  undetected  through  the  Venetian  fleet, 
and  received  prompt  assurances  of  such  relief  as  they  could 
furnish,  from  the  Countess  of  Bertinoro  and  from  Marche- 
sclli,  upon  whose  pity  they  had  thrown  themselves.     Still 
the  wretched  citizens,  in  addition  to  their  former  miseries, 
were  doomed  for  many  days  to  the  bitterness  of  suspense; 
and  Christian,  having"^obtained  intelligence  of  their  applica- 
tion, endeavoured  to  extinguish  this  last  spark  of  hope  by 
forging  letters  from  Marchcselli,  which  stated  the  impossi- 
bility of  raising  adequate  supplies,  and  recommended  them 
to  surrender  even  at  discretion.     Either  the  fraud  was  de- 
tected, or  the  firmness  of  the  besieged  prevailed  over  their 
despair ;   and  meantime  their  faithful  ally,  at  the  head  of 
such  troops  as  he  could  assemble  at  the  moment,  hastened 
through  the  territory  of  Ravenna,  eluding  the  forces  which 
might'^have  intercepted  his  march.     On  the  fourth  nighty 
he  "gained  the  summit  of  Falcognesa,  whence  Ancona  may 
be  descried,  almost  at  its  foot.     There,  ordering  every  sol- 
dier to  bind  to  the  head  of  his  lance  as  many  lighted  torches 
as  he  could  dispose  around  it,  and  extending  their  ranks  as- 
widely  as  his  numbers  permitted,  he  deployed  slowly  from 
the  mountain.     The  stratagem  succeeded.     Christian  vvas 
dismayed  at  the  long  and  glittering  lines  of  light  which 
approached  him  ;  and  supposing  that  he  was  attacked  by  a 
much  superior  force  to  his  own,  abandoned  his  works  in 
precipitate  retreat  and  hurried  to  Spoleto.     The  Venetians, 
unable  or  unwilling  to  maintain  the  blockade  without  his 
support,  withdrew  at  the  same  time  from  the  harbour  ;  and 
Ancona,  by  a  deliverance  for  which  she  had  little  dared  to 
hope,  was  freed  from  both  her  enemies. 

In  the  contest  between  Frederic  and  the  Lombards  during 
the  next  three  years,  the  Venetians  do  not  appear  to  have 
been  sharers.  The  part  which  they  had  already  taken  in 
the  siege  of  Ancona  must  be  attributed  far  more  to  a  petty 
mercantile  jealousy  than  to  any  cordial  espousal  of  the  in- 
terests of  the  emperor ;  and  as  soon  as  he  felt  strong  enough 
to  re-enter  Italy  in  warlike  guise,  they  again  adopted  their 
wise  and  ancient  policy  of  discouraging,  so  far  as  in  them 


ALEXANDER  IIL  AND  FREDERIC  BARBAROSSA.  61 

lay,  the  establishment  of  so  dangerous  a  power  in  their  own 
neighbourhood.  For  this  purpose  they  became  united  to 
the  Lombard  league,  though  without  active  co-operation  ; 
for  it  was  not  till  they  had  boldly  asserted  the  cause  of 
Alexander  IIL  that  they  became  involved  in  positive  hos- 
tilities with  Barbarossa. 

Neither  the  chronology  nor  indeed  the  very  events  of  the 
period  which  we  are  approaching  are  without  perplexity : 
but  of  the  flight  of  Alexander  to  Venice,  and  of  the  occur- 
rences to  which  it  led,  we  shall  speak  as  the  Venetians 
themselves  speak ;  for  although  these  incidents  have  some- 
times been  disputed,  they  appear  to  rest  upon  little  less 
sound  authority  than  that  adduced  for  most  other  facts  of  a 
date  equally  remote.  By  denying  them,  we  should  tear  a 
bright  page  of  glory  from  the  history  of  Venice,  and  con- 
tradict a  testimony  to  which  the  most  willing,  if  not  the 
most  implicit,  credence  is  usually  yielded, — the  testimony 
aflorded  by  numerous  works  of  art.  The  walls  of  that 
which  once  was  the  palatial  residence  of  the  doge  still  bear 
witness  to  the  triumph  of  Ziani,  the  humiliation  of  Frederic, 
and  the  proud  revenge  of  Alexander;  and  the  most  illustrious 
pencils  of  the  great  Venetian  school  of  painting  have  con- 
spired to  give  immortality  to  deeds  which  we  are  reluctant 
to  consider  otherwise  than  true.* 

According  to  these  representations,  we  find  that,  during 
the  emperor's  abode  at  Pavia,  Alexander  attempted 
to  negotiate.     The  boldness  with  which  his  legates    ,^' "' 
advocated  their  master's  cause  was  worthy  of  his^own      ^ 
unbroken  spirit ;  and  Frederic,  either  touched  by  their  fear- 
less dignity,  or  more  probably  awed  by  the  undisguised  appro- 
bation with  which  they  were  received  by  his  assembled  court, 
dismissed  them,   if  not  with  encouragement,  at  least  with 
respect.     The   breaking   up   of  the   congress  proved  the 
insincerity  of  these  demonstrations ;  and  Alexandej,  pur- 
sued by  the  uttermost  extremity  of  Frederic's  hate,  inter- 

*  Numerous  authorities  respecting  the  visit  of  Alexander  III.  to  Venice 
and  the  victory  over  Otho  have  been  collected  by  Girolamo  Bardi  a 
Florentine  painter,  who,  towards  the  close  of  the  si.xteenth  centur>-,  w'aa 
employed  to  replace  the  pictures  representing  these  events,  which  had 
been  destroyed  by  fire.  See  VUtoria  Navale  delta  Rep.  Ven.  contra 
Othone,6LC.  1583;  mABXaoHtstoriadellavenyUaa  VenetiaoccultamenU 
net  1177,  di  Papa  Alessandro  III.;  e  della  VUtoria  ottenxUa  da  Sebas- 
ttano  Ziam  J}os;c,  &c.comprobata  da  D.  Fortunate  Olmo,  Casinone. 
A'^oL.  I. — F 


G2 


WAR  WITH  FREDERIC  BARBAROSSA. 


f 


ESPOUSAL  OF  THE  ADRIATIC. 


63 


dieted  from  fire  and  water,  and  forbidden  reception  by  any 
one  on  pain  of  death,  resolved  to  abandon  the  continent ; 
and  it  was  to  Venice  alone,  safe  from  her  peculiar  locality, 

that  he  could  look  for  an  asylum  within  the  range  of 
,  'r^Z    Italy.     Embarking,  in   disguise,  at  Benevento,  he 

was  driven  by  contrary  winds  to  the  coast  of  Dal- 
matia ;  and,  after  a  short  stay  at  Zara,  he  crossed  over  to 
the  Lagmic.  There,  uncertain  of  his  reception,  it  is  said 
that  he  passed  the  first  night  in  the  porch  of  a  convent  ;* 
and  during  the  three  following  days,  more  effectually  to 
conceal  his  person,  he  submitted  to  a  menial  occupation  in 
the  kitchen  of  the  monastery,  till  he  was  recognised  and 
made  known  to  the  doge.  Ziani  received  him  with  the 
veneration  due  to  his  holy  office ;  soothed  his  misfortunes 
by  unbounded  marks  of  respect ;  and  encouraged  his  hopes 
by  despatching  an  immediate  embassy  to  Frederic,  requiring 
an  acknowledgment  of  his  pretensions.  The  haughty 
reply  of  the  emperor  is  preserved  to  us  by  Snbellico. 
"  Return,"  he  said,  "  and  acquaint  your  prince  and  senate, 
that  Frederic,  the  Roman  emperor,  demands  from  them  a 
fugitive  and  a  foe.  Unless  they  forthwith  deliver  him  to 
me  in  chains  and  as  a  captive,  I  denounce  war  against 
them.  No  treaty,  no  law  of  nations  shall  avail  in  their 
defence,  if  they  refuse  ;  and  neither  God  nor  man  shall 
avert  my  revenge.  I  will  press  them  both  by  sea  and 
land ;  and,  little  as  they  may  expect  such  punishment,  I 
will  not  stop  till  1  have  planted  my  victorious  eagles  on  the 
gates  of  St.  Mark's  !"  On  the  receipt  of  this  answer,  no 
choice  remained  but  an  ungenerous  abandonment  of  the 
pontiff,  through  fear,  or  a  preparation  for  immediate  hostili- 
ties. The  decision  was  made  unhesitatingly  ;  and  although 
the  republic  could  oppose  not  more  than  half  their  number 
to  the  sixty-five  galleys  which  Pisa,  Genoa,  and  Ancona 
had  placed  under  the  command  of  Otho,  the  emperor's  son, 
yet  Ziani  boldly  set  sail  to  encounter  them.  He  confided, 
perhaps,  in  the  virtue  of  the  pontifical  blessing ;  and 
assuredly  not  less  in  the  keen  edge  of  that  good  sword  with 
which  the  hands  of  the  holy  father  had  condescended  to 
gird  him  at  the  moment  of  his  embarkation. 

*  This  belief  is  strengthened  by  an  inscription  at  the  door  of  the 
monastery  of  San  Salvatore,  in  the  Merceria,  not  far  from  the  Riaito. 
AXEXANDROlII.  Fo^T.  Max.  pernoctanti. 


The  fleets  met  off  the  Istrian  coast  between  Pirano  and 
Parenzo ;  and  the  Venetians,  having  gained  the  wind,  dis- 
regarded the  superior  numbers  of  their  opponents.     After  a 
vigorous  contest  of  more  than  six  hours'  duration,  two 
galleys  destroyed,  forty-eight  captured,  and   a  still  more 
important  prize,  Otho,  the  emperor's  son,  were  the  fruits  of 
their  victory.     On  the  return  of  the  conquerors  to  Lido, 
Alexander  in  person  hastened  to  receive  his  benefactor, 
and  to  acknowledge  his  debt  of  obligation ;  and  a  solemn 
ceremony,  which  continued  to  be  celebrated  so  long  as  the 
republic  existed,  dates  its  origin  from  his  gratitude.     As 
soon  as  Ziani  touched  the  land,  the  holy  father  presented 
him  with  a  ring  of  gold.     "  Take,"  he  said,  "  this  ring,  and 
with  it  take,  on  my  authority,  the  sea  as  your  subject. 
Every  year,  on  the  return  of  this  happy  day,  you  and  your 
successors  shall  make  known  to  all  posterity  that  the  right 
of  conquest  has  subjugated  the  Adriatic  to  Venice,  as  a 
spouse  to  her  husband  !"     Of  all  the  privileges  with  which 
the  Venetians  were  ever  gifled,  this  papal  grant  appears  to 
have  been  cherished  by  them  with  the  most  tenacious  pride. 
The  Adriatic  is  now  widowed  of  her  lord  ;  but  during  the 
long  course  of  more  than  six  hundred  years,  every  fresh 
return  of  the  feast  of  Ascension  witnessed  the  renewal  of 
her  figurative  nuptials.    The  doge  and  his  clarissimi  having 
heard  mass  in  the  church  of  San  Nicolo,  embarked  on  board 
the  gorgeous  Bucentaui..* — a  state  galley,  blazing  with  gold, 
enriched  with  costly  ornanients,  and  preserving  such  fanciful 
identity  with  the  original  fabric,  as  could  be  obtained  by 
perpetual  repair  without  total   reconstruction. t      Gliding 
through   the   canals,   amid   festive   shouts  and  triumphal 
music,  this  superb  pageant  arrived  at  the  shore  of  Lido, 
near  the  mouth  of  the  harbour:    and  there  the  princely 
bridegroom,  dropping  a  golden  ring  into  the  bosom  of  his 
betrothed,    espoused   her   with   this   brief  but   significant 

*  Some  very  absurd  etymologies  of  this  name  are  noticed  by  Dura ; 
such  as  the  augmentative  particle  jBm  and  Centaurus,  the  name  of  an 
ancient  ship ;  or  Bis  Taurus,  the  name  (on  what  authority  we  know  not) 
of  the  ship  of  jEncas;  or  a  corruption  of  Diicentorum.  sc.  remorum. 
Casaubon,  before  Daru,  has  pointed  to  an  oflering  made  by  the  Syra- 
cusaus  to  the  sea,  of  an  earthen  vase  tilled  with  honey,  flowers,  and 
frankincense,  which,  the  learned  commentator  says,  reminds  him  of  the 
Venetian  custom.    {In  AtherKBum,  xi.  2.) 

t  Howell's  Letters,  book  i.  ^  i.  letter  31. 


64        HrMILIATION  OF  FREDERIC  BARBAROSSA. 

greeting,  "  We  wed  thee  with  this  ring,  in  token  of  our 
true  and  perpetual  sovereignty !" 

Once,  and  once  only,  a  future  pope  expressed  a  doubt  as 
to  the  origin  of  this  ceremony ;  and  he  received  a  continua- 
tion, which,  if  it  did  not  satisfy,  must  at  least  have  silenced 
him.  When  Julius  II.  inquired  of  the  Venetian  ambassador 
Donati  where  this  grant  of  Alexander  was  to  be  found,  he 
was  instructed  to  look  for  it  on  the  back  of  the  donation  of 
Constantine.  The  Venetians  themselves,  however,  were 
not  always  content  with  a  date  which  they  thought  com- 
paratively recent.  Marco  Foscarini*  has  claimed  a  much 
earlier  birth  for  the  espousal  of  the  Adriatic  ;  and  he  finds 
traces  of  it  in  Dandolo's  Chronicle,  under  the  dogeship  of 
Pietro  Urseolo  II.  towards  the  close  of  the  tenth  century. 

But  a  far  heavier  calamity  than  the  rout  of  his  fleet  had 
now  humbled  the  arrogance  of  Frederic,  and  so  totally  had 
he  been  defeated  by  the  Milanese  at  Legnano,  that  many 
days  elapsed  after  the  battle  before  it  was  ascertained  that 
he  still  lived.  Humbled  on  all  sides,  he  no  longer  refused 
to  treat ;  and  it  was  resolved  that  conferences  should  be 
opened  at  Venice,  for  the  adjustment  of  the  claims  of  the 
Lombard  cities,  and  the  settlement  of  the  pontificate.  The 
result  was  a  truce  for  six  years  with  the  former,  and  the 
acknowledgment  of  Alexander  as  pope.  To  add  solemnity 
to  this  treaty,  Frederic  expressed  a  wish  that  he  might  ratify 
it  in  person ;  but,  while  he  remained  under  excommunica- 
tion, it  was  a  mortal  sin  in  any  one  to  hold  communion  with 
him.  The  pope  freed  the  Venetians  from  these  spiritual 
difficulties,  by  removing  the  anathema ;  and  on  the  24th  of 
June,  the  emperor  landed  on  the  piazzetta  of  St.  Mark. 
The  doge,  attended  by  his  train  of  state,  his  councils,  the 
senate,  and  all  the  other  members  of  his  court  and  govern- 
ment, received  him  on  his  disembarkation,  and  escorted  him 
to  the  gates  of  the  cathedral.  There,  surrounded  by  the 
imposing  splendour  of  ecclesiastical  pomp,  clothed  in  his 
pontifical  vestments,  the  triple  crown  glittering  on  his  brow, 
himself  alone  seated,  amid  a  brilliant  throng  of  cardinals, 
prelates,  and  ambassadors,  who  stood  around,  Alexander, 
severely  tranquil,  awaited  the  approach  of  his  no  longer 
formidable  enemy.    The  emperor,  as  he  drew  near,  uncovered 

*  Delia  Letteratura  Veneziana,  lib.  ii.  p.  216. 


I 


ALEXANDERS  TRIUMPH. 


65 


his  head,  cast  aside  his  purple  mantle,  and,  prostrating 
himself  before  the  holy  father's  throne,  crept  onward  that 
he  might  kiss  his  feet.  The  wrongs  of  twenty  years  flashed 
across  the  remembrance  of  the  pope.  He  had  been  hunted 
like  a  partridge  on  the  mountains  ;  unthroned,  dishonoured, 
exiled,  proscribed,  a  price  set  upon  his  very  life  ;  and  the  per- 
secutor, from  whose  impious  violence  he  considered  himself 
to  have  been  shielded  by  that  especial  Providence  which 
watched  over  his  sacred  office,  was  now  humbled  beneath 
him  in  the  dust.  He  may  be  forgiven,  if,  in  a  moment  so 
trying  to  self-restraint,  he  was  unable  to  suppress  his  strong 
feelincT  of  exultation.  Plantinor  his  foot  on  the  neck  of  the 
prostrate  emperor,  he  repeated  the  words  of  David,  "  Thou 
shalt  go  upon  the  lion  and  the  adder ;  the  young  lion  and 
the  dragon  shalt  thou  tread  under  thy  feet  !"* — "  It  is  not  to 
youy  it  is  to  St.  Peter !"  murmured  the  indignant  prince ; 
and  the  reply  cost  him  a  yet  further  humiliation.  Alexander 
trod  a  second  time,  more  firmly,  upon  his  neck,  exclaiming, 
"  It  is  both  to  me  and  to  St.  Peter  !"  A  square  stone  of  red 
marble,  in  the  vestibule  of  St.  Mark's,  still  denotes  the  spot 
on  which  this  sintjular  and  memorable  reconciliation  took 
placet  On  quitting  the  cathedral,  the  emperor  conducted 
Alexander  to  his  horse,  assisted  him  to  mount,  and  held  his 
stirrup.  He  would  even  have  waited  on  his  bridle,  and  have 
performed  the  lowly  duties  of  an  esquire,  but  the  good  taste 
or  the  satiety  of  the  holy  father  forbade  these  further  marks 
of  subjection. 

It  would  have  been  an  easy  task  to  follow  the  customary 
track  in  relating  the  above  narrative ;  to  have  declaimed 
against  the  haughty  bearing,  as  it  is  termed,  of  the  pontitT; 
and  to  have  placed,  in  strong  contrast  with  his  pride,  the 
meekness  and  humility  of  that  heavenly  Master  whom  he 
professed  to  represent  on  earth.  But  are  such  pictures 
just  ?  The  pride,  if  we  are  so  pleased  to  term  it,  of 
Alexander  was  not  a  low  and  petty  feeling,  which  regarded 
his  own  individual  aggrandizement,  but  it  sprang  from  a 
contemplation  of  the  holy  guardianship  with  which  he  had 
been  invested.     He  believed  (fervently,  sincerely  believed) 

♦  Psalm  xci.  13. 

t in  that  temple-porch 

The  brass  is  gone,  the  porphyry  rrmains. 

Rogcm.— Italy,  "  St.  Mark's  Place.'' 
F2 


66 


PEACE  OF  CONSTANCE. 


that  he  was  the  vicar  of  his  Saviour;  and  that,  by  the 
injuries  which  he  had  endured  in  his  own  person,  that 
Saviour  had  been  injured  also.  It  is  not  the  reasonable- 
ness nor  the  truth  of  this  belief  that  is  now  advocated  ;  but 
if  the  motive  once  be  granted  (and  there  seems  no  other 
which  could  have  supported  Alexander  unbroken  and  undis- 
mayed through  the  long  struggle  of  his  persecution),  the 
acts  which  flowed  from  that  motive  will  be  divested  of  much 
of  the  invidiousness  which  has  sometimes  been  imputed  to 
them.  His  first  address  to  Frederic  was  couched  in  the 
words  of  Scripture,  and  spoken  as  by  one  endued  with  the 
delegated  authority  of  Christ :  nor  was  it  till  the  oppressor 
attempted  to  separate  the  man  from  the  pontifl'  that  he 
indignantly  repulsed  this  infringement  upon  his  rights,  and 
identified  himself  with  the  apostle. 

One  other  triumph  still  remained  for  the  aged  pope.     He 
saw  his  competitor  for  the  tiara  renounce  it  at  his  feet,  in 
the  halls  of  the  Vatican;  and  on  his  joyous  return  to  his 
capital  for  this  purpose,  he  was  accompanied  by  Ziani.     No 
court  was  better  versed  than  that  of  Rome  in  the  politic  art 
of  giving  value  to  its  "  cheap  rewards  ;"  and  dislinctions 
were  lavishly  showered  upon  the  Venetian  prmce,  which 
derived  their  chief  price  from  their  very  want  of  substance. 
In  imitation  of  the  custom  of  the  holy  see,  he  was  permitted 
to  affix  a  leaden  instead  of  a  waxen  seal  to  all  documents 
which  received  his  sign-manual ;    and,  for  this  grant,  an 
amusing  reason  has  been  given — Ut  Veneii  senatus  gr-dy'i- 
tatem  in  diplomafibus  pradicaret — that  his  official  instru- 
ments might  evince  the  weight  of  the  Venetian  senate.* 
Certain   envied   symbols   of    sovereign  power   were   also 
accorded   to   him ;    and   henceforward,  a  lighted  taper,  a 
sword,  a  canopy  {umhrella),  a  chair  of  state,  a  footstool 
covered  with  cloth  of  gold  (both  of  which  last  he  was  privi- 
leged to  use  even  in  the  pontifical  chapel),  silver  trumpets, 
and  embroidered  banners  announced  the  presence  of  the 
doge.     To  his   subjects   at  large,   as  a  mark  of  general 
favour,  a  plenary  indulgence  was  granted,  on  the  condition 
of  hearing  mass  and  confessing  themselves  in  the  church  of 
St.  Mark  on  the  morning  of  the  feast  of  Ascension. 

The  peace  of  Constance  completed  the  arrangements 

♦  Amelol  de  la  Houssaye,  585. 


THE  RED  COLUMNS. 


67 


which  the  treaty  of  Venice  had  begun  ;  and  its  rati- 
fication placed  the  republic  in  a  far  more  eminent  rank   ^1^' 
among  European  powers  than  she  had  yet  attained. 
She  was  hailed  as  the  liberator  of  Italy,  and    the    pro- 
tector of  the    holy  see.      Through  her  aid  the  imperial 
yoke  had  been  cast  away  ;  and,  by  the  discomfiture  of  Fred- 
eric, while  she  freed  herself  from  a  dangerous  neighbour, 
she  received  the  applause  and   gratitude  of  the  Lombard 
cities  for  the  recovery  of  their  independence.     In  her  rela- 
tions with  the  East,  a  like  ascendency  had  been  won  ;  not 
so  much  through  increase  of  strength  in  Venice  as  through 
the  rapidly  accelerated  decline  of  the  empire  :  and,  on  the 
death  of  Ziani,  the   alliance  which,  when   proflered   five 
short  years  before,  was  coldly  listened  to  and  only  not 
rejected,  was  now  in  turn  solicited  with  ardour  and  pur- 
chased by  concession. 

It  was  in  this  reign  that  the  two  magnificent  granite 
columns  which  still  adorn  the  pmzzetta  of  St.  Mark  were 
erected  on  their  present  site.     They  were  among  the  tro- 
phies brought  by  Dominico  Michieli  on  his  victorious  return 
from  Palestine  in  11 2.5 ;  and  it  is  believed  that  they  were  plun- 
dered from  some  island  in  the  Archipelago.     A'third  pillar, 
which  accompanied  them,  was  sunk  while  landing.     It  was 
long  before  any  engineer  could  be  found  sufficiently  enter- 
prising to  attempt  to  rear  them,  and  they  were  left  neglected 
on  the  quay  for  more  than  fifty  years.     In  1180,  however, 
Nicolo  Barattiero,*   a  Lombard,  undertook  the  task,  and 
succeeded.      Of  the  process  which  he  employed  we  are 
uninformed ;  for  Sabellico  records  no  more  than  that  he 
took  especial  pains  to  keep  the  ropes  continually  wetted, 
while  they  were  strained  by  the  weight  of  the  huge  marbles. 
The    government,  more   in   the   lavish   spirit  of  oriental 
bounty,  than  in  accordance  with  the  calculating  sobriety 
of  European  patronage,  had  promised  to  reward  the  archi- 
tect by  granting  whatever  boon,  consistent  with  its  honour, 
he  might  ask.     It  may  be  doubted  whether  he  quite  strictly 
adhered  to  the  requisite  condition,  when  he  demaiUed  that 
games  of  chance,  hitherto  forbidden  throughout  the  capital, 
might  be  played  in  the  space  between  the  columns  ;  perhaps 

♦Doglioni  fixes  the  erection  of  these  columns  in  1172,  Sabellico  in 
1174,  the  common  Venetian  Guide-books  a  few  years  later.  The  Abbato 
GaraccijHi,  writes  the  name  of  the  engineer  Starattooi. 


68 


PROCURATORI  DT  SAN  MARCO. 


AVVOGADORI. 


69 


with  a  reservation  to  himself  of  any  profits  accruing  from 
them.     His  request  was  granted,  and  the  disgraceful  mo- 
nopoly became  established  ;  but  afterward,  in  order  to  render 
the  spot  infamous,  and  to  deter  the  populace  from  frequent- 
ing  it,  it  was  made  the  scene  of  capital  executions ;  and 
the  bodies  of  countless  malefactors  were  thus  gibbeted  under 
the  very  windows  of  the  palace  of  the  chief  magistrate. 
A  winaed  lion  in  bronze,  the   emblem  of  St.  Mark,  was 
raised  "on  the  summit  of  one  of  these  columns ;  and  the 
other  was  crowned  with  a  statue  of  St.  Theodore,  a  yet 
earlier  patron  of  the  city,  armed  with  a  lance  and  shield, 
and  trampling  on  a  serpent.    A  blunder,  made  by  the  statuary 
in  this  group,  has  given  occasion  for  a  sarcastic  comment 
from  Amelot  de  la  Houssaye.     The  saint  is  sculptured  with 
the  shield  in  his  right  hand,  the  lance  in  his  left ;  a  cle^r 
proof,  says  the  French  writer,  of  the  unacquaintanceof  the 
Venetians  with  the  use  of  arms ;  and  symbolical  that  their 
great  council  never  undertakes  a  war  of  its  own  accord,  nor 
for  any  other  object  than  to  obtain  a  good  and  secure  peace. 
The   satirist   has   unintentionally  given   the  republic  the 
highest   praise  which  could  flow  from  his  pen.     Happy, 
indeed,  would  it  have  been  for  mankind,  if  governments  had 
never  been  actuated  by  any  other  policy  !     De  la  Houssaye 
informs  us  also  that  the  Venetians  exchanged  the  patronage 
of  St.  Theodore  for  that  of  St.  Mark,   from   like   pacific 
motives ',  because  the  first  was  a  soldier  and  resembled  St, 
George,  the  tutelary  idol  of  Genoa. 

It  may  be  doubtful  whether  the  high  office  of  Procuratore 
di  San  Marco  was  first  created,  as  has  sometimes  been  said, 
under  the  reign  of  Ziani ;  but  the  treasure  of  the  saint  haj 
so  much  increased  in  that  doge's  time,  and  his  own  addi- 
tions to  it  were  so  liberal,  that  the  appointment  may  be 
esteemed  then  first  to  have  attained  the  importance  which 
it  ever  afterward  preserved.  In  the  outset,  there  was  but 
a  single  procuratore^  afterward  we  find  three,  and  then  per- 
manently nine ;  in  yet  later  times  the  dignity  became  venal, 
and  fifty  might  be  counted  at  once.  Even  then,  however, 
the  two  clas'ses  of  procuratori  by  merit  and  procuratori  by 
purchase  were  carefully  distinguished.  Occasionally,  the 
honorary  title  was  given  to  eminent  foreigners  who  had 
been  enrolled  in  the  golden  book.  Although  this  dignity 
waM  the  second  in  the  republic,  the  procuratori,  as  such, 


were  not  entitled  to  seats  in  the  great  council,  and  even  in 
the  senate  they  were  not  allowed  to  originate  any  proposi- 
tion. During  the  session  of  the  council,  two  of  them  were 
stationed  in  the  clock  tower  to  watch  over  the  safety  of  its 
members.  Their  appointment  was  for  life,  and  the  chief 
privilege  which  it  conferred  was  exemption  from  the  bur- 
densome charge  of  embassies.  They  were  lodged  in  a 
stately  palace  in  the  Piazza  di  San  Marco^  they  were 
obliged  to  hold  three  audiences  in  each  week,  and  they  were 
not  allowed,  without  express  permission  from  the'  great 
council,  to  be  absent  from  the  city  more  than  two  days  in 
any  one  month.  Their  chief  duties  were  to  superintend 
the  cathedral  and  treasury  of  St,  Mark,  to  take  the  legal 
guardianship  of  orphans,  and  to  act  as  public  executors  to 
any  Venetian  who  chose  so  to  appoint  them.  So  great  was 
their  consideration  at  one  time  throughout  Italy,  that, 
from  every  district,  wards  were  consigned  to  their  pro- 
tection ;  and  of  all  the  magistrates  of  Venice  they  may 
be  esteemed  to  have  been  the  most  independent  and  un- 
tainted by  intrigue,  because,  by  their  exclusion  from  the 
great  council,  unless  they  held  the  coveted  office  of  a  savio 
grandCf  they  had  no  inducement  to  court  popularity,  by 
cringing  to  their  brother  nobles  for  support. 

The  accession  of  Orio  Malipieri,  the  citizen  who  had 
declined  the  throne  on  the  death  of  Michieli,  was 
marked  by  certain  new  changes  in  the  form  of  elec- 
tion. The  great  council  appointed  four  commis- 
sioners, each  of  whom  named  ten  electors,  and  on  the 
choice  of  these  forty  depended  the  future  doge.  Three 
magistrates  also  were  instituted,  about  the  same  time,  under 
the  title  of  acvogadori,  whose  ostensible  duties  were  to 
represent  and  to  watch  over  the  public  interests,  in  opposi- 
tion to  any  possible  undue  claims  which  might  be  advanced 
by  the  ambition  of  the  executive.  In  the  courts  of  justice, 
they  acted  as  checks  upon  the  administration  of  law,  and 
as  public  accusers ;  in  the  councils,  they  vigilantly  super- 
intended the  course  of  debate  ;  and  without  the  presence 
of  at  least  one  of  them  no  act  of  any  session  was  consi- 
dered valid.  The  police  of  the  capital  was  intrusted  to 
their  care  ;  the  disbursements  for  public  functionaries  passed 
through  their  hands ;  they  were  the  guardians  of  all  legis- 
lative documents,  and  of  the  registers  by  which  the  legiti- 


A.  D. 

1178. 


t 


-  tiAuH^m 


70 


ABDICATION  OF  MALIPIERI. 


gibbon's  ACCOUNT  OF  THE  FOURTH  CRUSADE.   71 


macy  of  the  nobles  was  avouched  through  the  entries  of 
their  marriages  and  births. 

Few  events  marked  the  reign  of  Malipieri ;  a  revolt  at 
Zara  produced  an  unsuccessful  expedition,  and  the  colony 
for  a  while  threw  off  its  dependence  upon  the  republic. 
Fourteen  years  of  power  had  not  diminished  the  love 
which  the  doge  always  felt  for  privacy ;  and  profiting  by  a 
moment  of  peace,  during  which  he  might  relinquish  his 
burdensome  charge  without  hazard  to  his  country,  he  with-, 
drew  to  a  monastery.  The  great  events  of  the  succeeding- 
reign  demand  a  separate  portion  of  our  narrative. 


Effigies  of  Frederic  Barbarossa  :— 1.  From  his  Seal.    2.  From  ^  B^g 
Rilievo  on  the  Porta  Romana,  at  Mil^u. 


CHAPTER  III. 

PROM  A.  D.  1192  TO  A.  D.  1204. 
Enrico  Dandolo— Fourth  Crusade— Conquest  of  Constantinople. 


A.  D. 
1192.  XLii. 


DOGE. 

Enrico  DanDolo. 


If  the  period  upon  the  relation  of  which  we  are  about  to 
enter  is  among  the  most  splendid  which  the  annals  of 
Venice  offer  to  the  historian,  it  is  also  among  the  most  dif- 
ficult which  it  can  fall  to  his  lot  to  record :  not  so  much 
from  the  variety  and  richness  of  the  materials  presented  to 
his  hand,  as  from  the  glowing  and  gorgeous  texture  into 
which  they  already  have  been  woven  by  the  skill  of  a  con- 
summate artist.  To  attempt  to  rival  Gibbon's  brilliant,  yet 
most  exact,  narration  of  the  fourth  crusade  were  a  pre- 
sumptuous and  a  hopeless  task.  In  no  other  portion  of 
his  great  work  has  ho  more  advantageously  displayed  his 
extraordinary  powers ;  and  in  no  other  is  he,  for  the  most 
part,  so  free  from  his  peculiar  blemishes,  and — would  that 
it  were  unnecessary  to  add — from  his  far  more  weighty 
faults.*  To  transcribe  pages  familiar  to  every  reader  is 
superfluous ;  to  imitate  them  would  be  but  to  exhibit  our 
own  inferiority.  In  treading  on  the  same  line,  therefore, 
we  shall,  as  much  as  possible,  avoid  a  servile  coincidence 
with  Gibbon's  steps  ;  and,  while  borrowing  largely  from  the 
older  authorities  upon  which,  in  common  with  ourselves,  he 
must  have  relied,  we  shall  carefully  remember  that  our  con- 
cern is  principally  with  the  Venetians. 

The  choice  of  the  electors  fell  upon  Enrico  Dandolo ; 

*  Notwithstanding  this  richly-merited  praise,  we  think  Sismondi'S 
fourteenth  chapter  far  more  valuable  than  Gibbon's  sixtieth.  The  former 
narratM  vigorously  what  the  latter  is  often  content  only  to  imply. 


tBtA!A.\'iiite-Aaiafth:iiiM^.A,'a»iM!a^  jJrii^afaAtw.'  -  ■ . 


72 


FULK  OF  NEUILLY. 


Ts  at  that  time  ambassador  from  the  -^ubhc  ;  ^^^^^^^^^^ 
of  the  statements  respecting  his  defect  of  sight  ^tj^n^ute^^^^^ 
to  the  cruelty  of  the  emperor,  who,  ^fh  hi«  o^^  ^^ctir^; 
appUed  hot  plates  of  iron  to  the  eyeballs  of  his  vie  m 
Another  and  a  more  probable  account*  refers  this  partial 
bUndness  to  a  wound  received  in  battle.     It  is  with  surprise 
S^Tt  we  find  so  few  memorials  of  the  earlier  care-  ot^ on 
who  raised  for  himself  so  proud  a  monument  oj  g^ory  m  his 
decline  :  yet,  save  this  single  doubtful  occurrence,  nothing 
tther  is'to  be  related  of  fiandolo  till  ^e  was  called  to  the 
sovereignty  of  Venice.'    In  that  high  office  ^^  fi^^^t.  ^^^1^'" 
fested  hTs  vigour  by  promptly  avenging  an  insult  which  the 
ptanshadofferedto^he  W«Wic,  in  the  --"^e  oj  Pola^ 
He  attacked  .nd  discomfited  their  fleet   and  abstained  from 
further  retaliations  only  at  the  urgent  request  of  the  pope, 
whose  views  were  o>ected  to  the  rescue  of  the  holy  sepulchre 
by  a  vast  confederacy  of  all  the  European  powers. 

Fulk,  a  priest  of  Neuilly,  a  village  not  far  from  Pans,  had 
roused   afresh   the  dormant   spirit  ot   Christendom.     The 

zeal  of  his  preaching  and  the  repute  ^^^\'^l'f''^^^'^''\Z 
the  attention  of  Innocent  III.,  who  at  that  time  6"^^  the 
chair  of  St.  Peter,  and  who  saw  m  him  a  fit  instrument  lor 
the  accomplishment  ofhis  favourite  object.     For  this  pur- 
pose, he  authorized  the  curate  of  NeuiUy  to  direct  himself 
to  the  announcement  of  a  new  crusade,  in  which  eveiy  one 
who  engaged,  but  for  the  short  space  of  a  single  year,  should 
be  absolved  from  all  the  sins  which  he  had  committed   and 
confessed.     The  project  was  entertained  with  ardour,  espe- 
cially by  the  chief  nobles  of  France  ;  and  aniong  the  most 
distinguished   soldiers  who   assumed  the   Cross  may   be 
named  Baldwin,  Count  of  Flanders  and  Hainault,  Louis, 
Count  of  Blois,  and  Thibaut  IV.,  Count  of  Champagne. 

*  Villehardouin  ^  34. 


VILLEHARDOUIN's  embassy  to  VENICE.         73 

The  last-named  had  an  hereditary  claim  to  distinction  in 
Palestine ;  for  his  father  had  been  among  the  bravest 
champions  in  the  second  crusade,  and  his  elder  brother  had 
worn  the  crown  of  Jerusalem.  At  an  assembly 
held  by  adjournment  at  Compeigne,  plans  of  ad-  .^'^' 
Vance  to  the  Holy  Land  were  discussed ;  and  the  long  ' 

train  of  calamity  wherein  their  predecessors  in  the  like 
sacred  course  had  been  involved  deterred  the  barons  from 
repeating  a  painful  and  circuitous  march  by  land.  It  was 
resolved,  therefore,  to  proceed  at  once  by  sea  ;  and  for 
means  of  transport,  it  became  necessary  to  apply  to  the  Vene- 
tians, at  that  time  the  most  powerful  of  the  maritime  states. 
Two  envoys  were  chosen  by  each  of  the  above-named  counts 
to  conduct  the  negotiation  ;  and  these  ambassadors,  fur- 
nished vdth  undoubted  credentials  and  plenary  authority, 
crossed  the  Alps,  and  hastened  with  all  diligence  to  Venice, 
where  they  arrived  during  the  first  week  in  Lent. 
Geoffrey  de  Villehardouin,  Marshal  of  Champagne,  ,^*  ^* 
who  was  employed  on  this  important  service,  has  ^* 
left  a  minute  account  of  his  diplomacy,  and  of  the  sub- 
sequent expedition.  It  is  by  his  narrative  that  we  shall 
permit  ourselves,  for  the  most  part,  to  be  guided,  and 
wherever  they  can  be  introduced,  we  shall  employ  his  very 
words. 

The  letters  of  credence  with  which  the  envoys  had  been 
intrusted  required  the  doge  and  senate  of  Venice  to  place 
as  entire  confidence  in  these  representatives  as  in  the 
barons  themselves  by  whom  they  were  deputed.  Dandolo 
accordingly  received  them  with  distinguished  honour,  and 
acknowedging  that,  with  the  exception  of  crowned  kings, 
the  princes  who  had  sent  them  were  the  most  powerful  in 
Christendom,  he  demanded  their  object.  They  answered 
by  requesting  an  assembly  of  the  council  before  which  it 
might  be  declared  ;  and  in  an  audience  granted  four  days 
afterward  they  thus  expressed  themselves  :*  "  Sir,  we  are 
come  to  thee  from  the  most  potent  barons  of  France,  who 
have  put  on  the  sign  of  the  Cross  to  avenge  the  wrongs  of 
Jesus  Christ,  and  to  recover  Jerusalem,  if  such  be  the  will 
of  God ;  and  because  they  know  that  no  nation  has  the 

*  In  this,  and  in  our  following  very  copious  usage  of  Villehardouin, 
■we  have  copied  from  the  pleasing  and  accurate  translation  by  Mr.  T. 
Smith.    London,  Picktring ;  and  Leicester,  CJombe,  1889. 

Vol.  I. — G 


74 


THE  VENETIANS  PROMISE  ASSISTANCE. 


power  of  you  and  your  people,  they  implore  you,  in  God** 
name,  to  look  with  pity  upon  the  Holy  Land,  and,  by  sup- 
plying them  with  ships  and  means  for  their  passage  thither, 
to  join  with  them  in  avenging  the  shame  of  our  Redeemer.'* 
"  On  what  conditions,"  demanded  the  doge  ]  "  On  any  con- 
ditions," replied  the  envoys, "  which  you  may  think  proper  to 
impose,  provided  they  are  within  our  power."  "  Certes," 
said  the  doge,  "  the  request  is  no  slight  one,  and  the  enter- 
prise itself  is  of  vast  magnitude  :  we  will  return  you  an 
answer  in  eight  days  ;  and  wonder  not  that  we  ask  so  long 
a  time,  for  a  thing  of  this  importance  needs  much  delib- 
eration." 

At  the  expiration  of  the  time  appointed,  the  doge  an- 
nounced the  conditions  on  which  he  would  assent  to  the 
proposal :  prefacing  this  declaration  with  a  statement  which 
proves  that  it  was  not  yet  considered  safe  to  neglect  the 
body  of  the  people,  in  the  decision  of  important  questions  of 
state.  Provided  he  could  obtain  the  concurrence  of  the 
great  council  and  of  the  commons  of  the  city,  he  agreed  to 
furnish  palanders*  for  the  transport  of  four  thousand  five 
hundred  horses  and  nine  thousand  esquires  ;  ships  for  four 
thousand  five  hundred  knights  and  twenty  thousand  ser- 
geants! on  foot.  Nine  months'  provisions  were  to  be  sup- 
plied to  this  armament,  at  the  rate  of  four  marks  for  every 
horse,  two  for  every  man.  The  engagements  were  to  con- 
tinue in  force  for  one  whole  year,  from  the  day  of  departure 
from  the  port  of  Venice,  into  whatever  realms  the  service  of 
God  and  Christendom  might  lead  them  ;  and  the  sum  de- 
manded for  this  assistance  was  eighty-five  thousand  marks.t 
As  an  allurement  to  the  completion  of  the  bargain,  Dandolo 
promised  to  equip,  in  addition,  fifty  galleys  for  the  love  of 
God,  and  free  of  expense,  but  with  this  important  reserva- 


*  Palander  is  adopted  from  the  translation  of  Vignere,  and  has  been 
sanctioned  by  Gibbon,  who  says  the  word  is  still  used  in  the  Mediter- 
ranean. The  oriL'inal  is  uuissier,  from  huis,  a  door,  and  implies  a  flat- 
bottomed  vessel,  constructed  purposely  for  the  transport  of  horses,  from 
the  ports  or  doors  of  which  a  sort  of  drawbridge  could  be  let  down  at 
pleasure,  for  their  ingress  and  egress. 

t  Sergeant  is  the  original  French  word.  Servientes  is  explained  by 
Ducange  {ad  v)  to  mean  all  horsemen  who  are  not  knights. 

i  The  treaty  is  given  by  Dandolo,  x.  3,  apud  Muratori,  xii.  323.  8is- 
mondi  (ii.  383)  estimates  the  mark  =  50  livres ;  .-.  85,000  marks  = 
4,250,000  livres  French  =  170,000/.  sterling. 


SMfiewlWiiwBiMat 


RATIFICATION  OF   THE  TREATY. 


75 


tion,  that  so  long  as  the  alliance  continued,  all  conquests 
made  by  land  or  sea  should  be  divided  equally  between  the 
contracting  parties.  .  i.    r      v  a 

The  ambassadors  demanded  a  smgle  night  for  the  consid- 
eration of  this  truly  mercantile  offer ;  and  on  the  morrow 
they  assented  to  it.     The  proposition  was  then  submitted 
to  the  different  bodies  whose  consent  was  deemed  necessary. 
In  the  end,  the  general  assembly  was  convoked  ;  and  in  the 
presence  of  more  than  ten  thousand  citizens,  the  mass  of 
the  Holy  Ghost  was  celebrated  in  the  cathedral  of  St.  Mark, 
where  God  was  implored  to  inspire  them  to  do  his  pleasure 
in  respect  of  the  demands  of  the  ambassadors.     When  the 
mass  was  over,  the  doge  sent  to  the  ambassadors,  desiring 
that  they  would  humbly  move  the  people  to  the  conclusion 
of  the  treaty.     The  ambassadors  accordingly  repaired  to  the 
church,  and  were  eajjerly  regarded  by  those  who  had  not 
yet  beheld  them  ;  while  Villehardouin  spoke  by  consent  for 
the  rest,  and  said,  "  Signiors,  the  most  high  and  powerful 
barons  of  France  have  sent  us  to  Venice  to  implore  you  to 
look  with  pity  on  the  Holy  City,  which  is  m  bondage  to  the 
Infidels,  and  for  God's  sake  to  join  with  them  in  avenging 
the  wrongs  of  Jesus  Christ.     They  turn  to  you  because 
they  know  none  others  so  powerful  on  the  seas,  and  they  have 
enjoined  us  to  kneel  at  your  feet  until  you  have  granted  their 
prayers,  and  have  compassion  upon  the  land  over  the  sea. 
The  six  ambassadors  then  fell  upon  their  knees,  with  many 
tears,  and  the  doge  and  the  people  waved  their  hands,  and  cried 
aloud  with  one  voice,  «  We  consent,  we  consent."     The  ac- 
clamations and  tumult  were  so  great  that  it  seemed  the  earth 
shook ;  and  when  that  great  heart-moving  cry,  which  ex- 
ceeded all  human  experience,  had  subsided,  the  doge  mounted 
the  pulpit  and  spoke  to  the  people  as  follows  :  "  Behold,  sig- 
niors, the  honour  which  the  Lord  has  shown  you,  m  dispos- 
ing the  bravest  warriors   upon  earth  to  seek  your  alliance, 
in  preference  to  that  of  all  other  nations,  in  so  high  an 
enterprise  as  the  rescue  of  the  tomb  of  our  Lord." 

Babylon,  not  the  city  on  the  Euphrates,  but  Cairo,  to  which 
that  name  was  applied,  was  proclaimed  to  be  the  destination 
of  the  armament ;  and  the  feast  of  St.  John,  in  the  follow- 
ing year,  was  named  as  the  day  of  assemblage  at  Venice. 
After  abundance  of  holy  tears  and  reciprocal  pledges  of 
fidelity,  the  ambassadors  departed,  having  first  raised  a  loan 


76 


DEATH  OF  COUNT  THIBAUT. 


of  two  thousand  marks,  which  they  paid  the  doge  as  an 
earnest,  and  also  to  enable  him  to  commence  his  prepara- 
tions. Meantime  each  party  informed  Innocent  of  their 
proceedings,  and  received  his  glad  approval  of  the  treaty. 
At  the  moment  of  according  this  confirmation,  as  if  with 
sagacious  foresight  of  the  ills  which  were  about  to  succeed, 
he  expressly  prohibited  them  from  arming  against  any 
Christian  powers,  unless  compelled  to  do  so  by  direct  vio- 
lence or  other  unavoidable  necessity  ;  and  even  in  such 
cases  they  were  instructed  to  apply  for  the  previous  sanction 
of  the  apostolic  see. 

Villehardouin  returned  joyously  to  his  master's  court  at 
Troyes,  where  an  unexpected  calamity  well  nigh  frustrated 
all  his  hopes.  Count  Thibaut  was  languishing  in  sickness  ; 
but  as  if  renovated  by  the  cheerful  intelligence  of  which  his 
marshal  was  the  bearer,  and  fired  with  true  knightly  spirit, 
he  called  for  his  horse  to  ride  forth,  which  for  a  long  season 
past  he  had  not  done,  and  rising  from  his  bed  he  mounted 
him  for  the  last  time.  Before  his  death,  wherein  he  showed 
himself  of  all  men  the  most  exemplary,  he  bequeathed  the 
treasure  which  he  had  provided  for  the  pilgrimage  to  his 
servants  and  men-at-arms,  of  whom  no  prince  of  the  age 
had  braver  or  greater  numbers  ;  and  he  ordained  that  each 
one,  as  he  received  his  bounty,  should  swear  upon  the  holy 
Gospel  to  repair  to  the  camp  at  Venice,  according  to  his  en- 
gagement. Great  was  the  shame  of  many  by  whom  this 
vow  was  broken. 

By  the  death  of  Count  Thibaut,  the  crusaders  of  Cham- 
pagne were  left  without  a  leader ;  for  though  Blanche  of 
Navarre,  his  widow,  was  pregnant  of  a  son  at  the  time  of 
his  decease,  she  had  not  hitherto  borne  male  progeny.  That 
son,  a  gallant  and  valiant  knight,  was  destined  to  obtain  yet 
higher  celebrity  by  his  wit  than  by  his  prowess  ;  and  the 
royal  troubadour,  whose  deeds  of  arms  are  forgotten,  still 
lives  in  the  refined  and  tender  lais  which  he  devoted  to  the 
praise  of  Blanche  of  Castile  ;  a  princess,  whose  beauty,  vir- 
tues, and  high  descent  are  familiar  to  an  Englishman, 
through  the  tribute  which,  in  later  years,  they  received  from 
Shakspeare.* 

The  Duke  of  Burgundy  and  the  Count  of  Bar-le-duc  were 


*  King  John,  Act  II.  Scene  3. 


NUMEROUS  DESERTIONS. 


77 


successively  and  ineffectually  entreated  to  assume  the  com- 
mand of  the  forces.  It  was  then  offered  to  Boniface,  Mar- 
quis of  Montferrat,  a  knight  already  distinguished  in  a  former 
crusade,  and  numbered  among  the  conquerors  of  Acre. 
The  parUament  invited  him  to  Soissons,  and  there,  in  the 
abbey-yard  of  our  Lady  St.  Mary,  weeping  and  kneelincr  at 
his  feet,  they  prayed  him,  for  the  love  of  God,  to  assume'the 
Cross,  to  become  their  chief  in  place  of  the  departed  count, 
and  to  receive  his  treasures  and  his  vassals ;  and  he,  kneel- 
ing also,  declared  that  he  freely  received  them.  Then 
the  Bishop  of  Soissons,  and  Fulk,  the  holy  prciicher,  with 
two  ecclesiastics  of  Montferrat,  conducted  him  to  the  church 
of  our  Lady,  and  placed  the  cross  upon  his  shoulder. 

Between  Easter  and  Pentecost,  the  gathering  commenced 
at  Venice,  and  great  numbers  of  the  crusaders  en- 
camped  on  the  island  of  San  Nicolo.  Baldwin  had  *"'  ^' 
already  arrived,  but  the  Count  of  Blois  was  still  ab-  ^^^^ 
sent,  and  much  consternation  was  excited  by  a  rumour, 
which  proved  true,  that  many  of  the  pilgrims,  mindless  of 
the  engagements  contracted  with  the  doge,  were  preparing 
means  of  voyaging  from  other  ports.  By  these  secessions, 
not  only  was  the  armament  deprived  of  much  numerical 
strength,  but  those  knights  who  abided  by  their  stipulations 
were  rendered  unable  to  pay  the  sum  for  which,  jointly  with  so 
many  others,  their  words  were  pawned.  Villehardouin  was 
despatched  to  Paviato  urge  the  Count  of  Blois  to  hasten  on- 
ward. By  prayers  and  exhortations  he  prevailed  upon  several 
who  were  about  to  embark  elsewhere  to  betake  themselves 
to  Venice,  where  Louis  and  the  barons  who  accompanied 
him  were  received  with  great  joy  and  festivity,  and  a  more 
goodly  or  a  braver  assembly  no  eye  had  ever  beheld.  On 
the  part  of  the  Venetians,  fulfilment  had  equalled,  if  not 
outrun,  their  promises.  So  gallantly  was  the  fleet  which 
they  had  prepared  equipped,  that  Christian  man  had  never 
seen  its  equal ;  and  the  ships,  the  galleys,  and  the  palanders 
were  in  such  numbers,  that  they  were  thrice  too  many  for 
the  diminished  host  of  the  crusaders.  "  Ila  !"  exclaims 
Villehardouin,  with  lively  and  well-justified  indignation, 
«  what  a  curse  it  was  that  so  many  sought  other  i)orts,  and 
came  not  to  join  the  army,  for  then  had  Christendom  been 
exalted,  and  the  land  of  the  Infidels  subdued." 

The  day  of  payment  arrived,  and  the  Venetians,  beinz 

G2  * 


78 


PROPOSED  ATTACK  ON  ZARA. 


PANDOLO  COMMANDS  THE  FLEET. 


79 


fully  prepared  to  sail,  called  upon  the  barons  for  the  sum 
stipulated  in  the  treaty.  Many  of  the  crusaders  had  already 
exhausted  their  whole  capital ;  others  were  reluctant  to  con- 
tribute more  than  the  proportion  for  which  they  had  agreed ; 
and  it  is  plain  that  no  inconsiderable  numbers  existed  in 
the  camp  who  were  already  wearied  of  the  rash  vow  by 
which  they  had  bound  themselves,  and  who  anxiously  sought 
a  pretext  for  breaking  up  the  expedition  altogether.  In  this 
unlooked-for  difficulty,  the  generosity  of  the  chief  leaders 
was  exercised  without  bounds.  Whatever  money  they 
possessed,  whatever  more  they  could  borrow,  all  precious 
articles  contributing  to  their  luxury,  their  jewels  and  rich 
vessels  of  gold  and  silver  were  delivered  to  the  doge.  Still, 
notwithstanding  these  great  sacrifices,  much  more  than  a 
third  of  the  contract  remained  unpaid  ;  for  thirty-four  thou- 
sand marks  were  yet  wanting.  The  hopes  of  those  who 
wished  for  the  dispersion  of  the  armament  were  elated  to 
the  utmost,  and  they  looked  confidently  to  the  abandonment 
of  the  design  ;  but  God,  says  Villehardouin,  who  confounds 
the  crafty,  ordained  it  otherwise. 

The  Venetians,  according  to  the  strict  terms  of  their 
agreement,  would  have  been  justified  in  retaining  the  sum 
already  paid  ;  for  it  was  forfeited  by  the  non-completion  of 
the  treaty.     But  the  eyes   of  all  Christendom  were  upon 
them.     Such  a  step  was  forbidden  by  honour;  and  partly 
owing  to  that  recollection, — partly,  it  may  be  supposed,  to 
some  share  in  the  enthusiasm  of  the  crusaders, — but,  more 
than  either,  to  a  well-grounded  anticipation  that  they  would 
be  far  greater  gainers  by  prosecuting  than  by  terminating 
the  expedition,  they  proposed  an  equivalent  for  the  loss 
which  they  must  encounter  by  a  delay  of  immediate  pay- 
ment.    The  defection  of  Zara  and  the  unsuccessful  attempt 
for  its   recovery  have  already  been  noticed.     Would  the 
barons,  in  the  first  instance  direct  their  arms  against  Bela, 
King  of  Hungary,  under  whose  protection  that  revolted 
colony  had  placed  itself]     Zara  was  on  their  route  down 
the  Adriatic  ;  it  was  so  situated,  that  if  left  behind  it  might 
at  any  time  intercept  the  communications  between  Pales- 
tine and  Europe ;  above  all,  its  subjection  was   the   sole 
condition  upon  which  the  republic  would  permit  her  fleet  to 
sail.     The  great  obstacle  to  this  proposal  arose  from  the 
fiolemu  injunction  delivered  by  the  pope,  that  they  should 


avoid  collision  with  any  Christian  power.  By  attacking  the 
King  of  Hungary,  who  himself  had  assumed  the  Cross, 
they  would  be  guilty  of  a  voluntary  infraction  of  these 
orders  ;  and  the  reluctant  pilgrims  and  the  cardinal  legate, 
who  was  present  in  Venice  to  superintend  the  expedition, 
urged  this  argument  with  vehemence.  But  the  ardour  of 
the  barons  and  the  firmness  of  Dandolo  prevailed.  The 
former  plausibly  contended  that  the  holy  father  could  never 
have  designed  to  include  a  rebellious  city  within  his  pro- 
tection;  the  latter  displayed  the  same  calm  but  unbending 
resolution  which  ever  marked  the  policy  of  the  Venetian 
government  in  its  transactions  with  the  Vatican.  He  con- 
tested the  pope's  right  of  interference,  and  added,  that  if  the 
cardinal  chose  to  accompany  the  expedition,  he  might  em- 
bark as  a  preacher  of  the  crusade,  but  not  in  the  character 
nor  with  the  assumed  powers  of  legate.  The  Romish  envoy 
angrily  returned  to  his  sovereign,  and  his  absence,  weaken- 
ing the  party  which  he  espoused,  secured  the  triumph  of  its 
opponents. 

Much  of  the  year  had  been  worn  away  in  these  discus- 
sions, and  all  things  were  now  prepared  for  the  embarkation. 
The  Marquis  of  Montferrat,  both  on  account  of  his  station 
and  his  fame,  had  been  nominated  to  the  chief  command  of 
the  land  forces,  but  that  of  the  fleet  was  still  to  be  deter- 
mined. The  barons  and  pilgrims  had  assembled  to  hear 
mass  in  St.  Mark's,  on  the  first  Sunday  after  the  ratifica- 
tion of  the  new  agreement ;  when,  before  the  commence- 
ment of  the  service,  they  were  surprised  by  seeing  the  aged 
doge  ascend  the  tribune,  and  by  hearing  from  him  the  fol- 
lowing address:  "  Signiors,  you  are  associated  with  the 
bravest  people  upon  earth,  for  the  highest  enterprise  which 
mortal  man  can  undertake.  I  am  a  very  old  man,  feeble  in 
health,  and  have  more  need  of  repose  than  of  glory :  yet, 
knowing  none  more  capable  of  guiding  and  commanding 
you  than  myself,  who  am  your  lord,  if  it  be  your  pleasure 
that  I  should  take  the  sign  of  the  Cross  to  watch  over  and 
direct  you,  and  leave  my  son  in  my  place  to  protect  our 
country,  I  will  cheerfully  go,  and  live  and  die  with  you  and 
with  the  pilgrims."  The  Venetians,  on  hearing  this  speech, 
cried  aloud  with  one  voice,  "  We  beseech  you,  in  God's 
name,  to  do  as  you  have  said,  and  go  with  us."  Descending 
from  the  tribune,  Dandolo  cast  himself  upon  his  knees 


80 


THE  FLEET  ANCHORS  OFF  ZARA. 


f, 


SIEGE  OF  ZARA. 


before  the  high  altar,  and  shedding  holy  tears,  fixed  the  cross 
on  his  ducal  cap.  His  son  was  named  regent  during  his 
absence  ;  and  many  of  the  illustrious  Venetians  followed 
the  example  of  their  sovereign. 

It  was  on  the  9th  of  October,  1202,  the  octaves  of  St. 
Rhemigius,  that  the  fleet  bearing  the  warriors  of  the  fourth 
crusade  unmoored  from  the  harbours  of  Venice.  A  nobler 
armament,  says  Villehardouin,  fired  at  the  remembrance, 
never  sailed  from  port.  The  ships  and  palanders  of  the 
barons  filled  as  they  were  with  anns  and  provisions,  knights 
and  serge^its,  the  shields  suspended  along  their  sides,  the 
gay  streamers  blazoned  with  the  cross  in  the  separate  na- 
tional colours  of  the  various  pilgrims,  and  displayed  on  the 
summit  of  the  turrets  wherewith  the  decks  were  crowned.* 
— "  Before  God,"  exclaims  the  delighted  chronicler,  "  it  was 
a  most  glorious  prospect  !"t  Nearly  five  hundred  sail 
stemmed  the  Adriatic  ;  and  fifty  of  these  were  galleys, 
among  which  the  giant  Mondo  towered  above  its  mates. 
Forty  thousand  troops  were  distributed  in  two  hundred  and 
forty  transports  ;  while  seventy  stout  Vessels  were  freighted 
with  stores,  provisions,  and  stupendous  artillery,  which  in- 
cluded three  hundred  perrieres,  mangonels,  and  engines  of 
every  other  description  necessary  for  the  assault  of  cities. 

Ma^iy  days  were  lost  in  waiting  for  a  favourable  wind, 
many  others  were  employed  in  touching  at  Istrian  ports,  so 
that  their  voyage  was  far  from  rapid,  and  a  month  elapsed 
before  they  cast  anchor  off  Zara.  On  the  10th  of  Novem- 
ber, the  eve  of  St.  Martin,  that  city  was  in  sight,  and  they 
perceived  it  to  be  enclosed  by  lofty  walls  and  towers,  so  that 
nowhere  could  a  fairer,  stronger,  or  more  wealthy  place  be 
found.  When  the  pilgrims  beheld  it,  they  were  astonished, 
and  said  to  each  other,  "  How  can  we  expect  to  take  such 
a  city,  unless  the  Lord  himself  assist  us  !"  The  swiftest 
vessels,  having  outsailed  their  companions,  arrived  towards 
sunset ;  and  in  the  morning,  which  was  bright  and  clear, 
the  galleys  and  palanders  and  the  ships  which  were  behind 
joined  them,  took  the  port  by  force,  breaking  the  strong 
chain  at  its  entrance,  and  approached  the  land  in  such  order 
that  the  harbour  lay  between  the  city  and  themselves.     Then 

*  Gibbon,  who  has  paraphrased  this  part  of  the  narrative,  transfers  it 
to  the  subsequent  passage  iron:  Zara  to  Constantinople, 
t  Ha  Diex !  tant  bon  i  ot  mis.    $  38. 


81 


might  you  have  seen  many  a  knight  and  many  a  sergeant 
leap  from  the  galleys,  and  many  a  good  steed  and  rich  pa- 
vilion landed  from  the  palanders.  The  army  encamped, 
and  on  St.  Martin's  day  commenced  the  siege,  although 
the  Marquis  of  Montferrat  was  not  yet  at  his  post.  Ville- 
hardouin informs  us  that  he  was  detained  by  his  own  aflfairs  ; 
but  the  narrator  of  the  Acts  of  Innocent  HI.  attributes  this 
leader's  absence  to  a  prudent  deference  to  the  pope,  by  whom 
he  had  been  personally  warned  against  this  expedition. 

The  Zaraites,  terrified  at  their  investment  by  this  mighty 
host,  and  anxious  to  escape  the  horrors  of  assault,  on  the 
first  day  communicated  with  the  doge,  and  oftered  the  sur- 
render of  their  city  and  all  its  possessions,  on  the  sole  con- 
dition of  personal  security.     Dandolo  refused  to  treat  sepa- 
rately, but  hastened  to  lay  the  welcome  proposal  before  his 
allies,  by  whom  it  was  readily  accepted.     Meantime,  during 
his  absence  in  the  council,  some  of  the  factious,  who  wished 
for  the  disbandment  of  the  army,  assured  the  deputies  who 
were  awaiting  his  return,  that,  provided  Zara  could  defend 
Itself  from  the  Venetians,  she  need  not  apprehend  hostilities 
from  the  other  confederates.     Deluded  by  this  representa- 
tion, the  messengers  returned  to  the  city  without  receiving 
Dandolo's  reply.     The  doge,  on  re-entering  his  pavilion  to 
adjust  the  terms,  was  surprised  to  find  it  deserted  by  the 
Zaraite  envoys  ;  and  this  surprise  was  succeeded  by  indigna- 
tion,  when  the  Cistercian  abbot,  de  Vaux,  informed  "him 
of  the  cause  ;  adding,  at  the  same  time,  "  Lords,  by  au- 
thority of  the  Apostle  of  Rome,  I  interdict  you,  who  are 
Christian  pilgrinjs,  from  attacking  this  Christian  city."    The 
interference  of  the  meddling  priest  availed  him  little,  for  the 
barons  shared  the  just  indignation  of  Dandolo,  when  he 
represented  to  them  the   treachery  which  had  been  prac- 
tised.    They  declared  it  to  be  a  notorious  outrage  ;  that  not 
a  day  passed  in  which  those  by  whom  it  had  been  perpe- 
trated did  not  seek  to  compass  the  ruin  of  the  army  ;  and 
that  everlasting  shame  would  be  their  portion,  unless  they 
assisted  the  Venetians  in  the  reduction  of  the  city.     In 
conformity  with  this  decision,  on  the  following  morning 
they  pushed  on  to  the  very  gates,  constructed  their  works, 
and  planted  their  engines  under  the  walls;  while  at  the 
flame  time  the  towers  towards  the  sea  were  battered  by 
huge  stones  cast  from  the  ships.    Five  days  were  spent  in 


82 


AFFRAY  AMONG  THE  CRUSADERS. 


ISAAC  AND  ALEXIUS  ANGELUS. 


83 


unremitting  attacks  ;  on  the  6th,  so  much  of  the  wall  had 
been  undermined  that  the  Zaraites  abandoned  all  hope  ot 
longer  resistance,  and  renewed  their  former  offers  ot  sur- 
render. The  chief  citizens,  by  whose  influence  the  revolt 
had  been  planned  and  executed,  despairmg  of  pardon, 
quitted  the  city  during  the  confusion  which  succeeded,  and 
found  safety  in  exile.  The  submission  of  the  revolted 
colony  did  not  save  it  from  pillage;  and  the  spoil  was 
equally  divided  between  the  Venetians  and  the  1-  rench. 

This  success  was  opportune  ;  for  winter  was  too  near  at 
hand  to  permit  hope  of  more  distant  operations.    Jhe  city 
afforded  very  seasonable  quarters  ;  and  its  mantime  halt 
was  occupied  by  the  Venetians,  the   remainder  by  their 
allies.     But  their  harmony  was  soon  interrupted.     Une  ol 
those  frays  which  frequently  arise  from  the  mutual  jealousy  ol 
different  nations  in  combined  armies,  threatened  their  destruc- 
tion on  the  third  evening  after  their  possession  of  Zara.     1  he 
conflict  beiran  about  the  time  of  vespers  ;  when  men  Irom 
all  parts  ran  to  arms,  and  the  combat  was  so  hot  that  the 
streets  were  filled  with  swords,  lances,  crossbows,  darts, 
and  multitudes  of  wounded  and  dead.     The   Venetians, 
fewer  in  number  than  their  opponents,  gave  way  with  con- 
siderable loss.     The  barons  armed  themselves  and  endea- 
voured to   restore   order ;    but  no   sooner  was  one  place 
quieted,  than  the  tumult  broke  out  in  another.     The  greater 
part  of  the  night  was  passed  in  alarm ;  and  several  days 
elapsed  before  the  joint  exertions  of  Dandolo  and  the  cru- 
sading  chiefs  succeeded  in  completely  restoring  tranquillity. 
The  arrival  of  the  Marquis  of  Montferrat  occurred  soon 
after  this  untoward  quarrel.     He  was  accompanied  by  a 
numerous  reinforcement ;  and  it  is  probable  that  the  ensuing 
sprintT  would  have  beheld  his  followers  on  the  shores  ol 
Palestine,  had  not  a  most  unlooked-for  proposal  diverted 
their  arms  yet  longer  from  the  original  object  of  their  expe- 
dition.    Hence  arose  results,  in  strict  accordance,  indeed, 
with  those  great  ends  which  our  eyes,  enlightened  by  subse- 
quent events,  now  perceive  that  the  crusades  were  designed 
to  promote ;  but  such  as  were  removed  at  the  time  far  be- 
yond the  bounded  horizon  of  human  foresight,  and  which 

*  Such  is  onP  of  the  charges  which  Innocent,  in  his  letter  to  the  Karons, 
brings  against  them.  Ramusio,  on  the  contrary,  says,  //a  J^a  Uaui 
auxiUo  capta,  solms  Veneti  prmda  ex  pacta fuit.    Lib  i.  p-  **• 


have  not  always  been  steadily  contemplated,  even  in  retro- 
spect.    For  the  fuller  comprehension  of  the  events  which 
we  are  about  to  relate,  it  is  necessary  that  we  should  briefly 
trace  some  revolutions  in  the  Greek  empire,  daring  a  few 
years  preceding  the  date  at  which  we  have  already  arrived. 
Since  the  unhappy  expedition  of  Vitale  Michieli  in  1171, 
the  story  of  Venice  has  separated  itself  from  that  of  Con- 
stantinople ;   but  fearful  events  had  stained  the  annals  of  the 
latter  court  during  the  progress  of  those  thirty  years.     The 
reign  of  Manuel  Comnenus,  though  abounding  with  that 
species  of  glory  which  is  won  by  the  personal  heroism  of 
the  sovereign,  had  exhausted  the  resources  and  diminished 
the  strength  of  his  empire.     His  son,  Alexius  U.,  at 
ten  years  of  age,  succeeded  to  a  precarious  throne,    Ao« 
from  which  he  was  speedily  hurled  by  the  vigour 
and  the  crimes  of  his  kinsman  Andronicus,  who  consum- 
mated his  treachery  by  the  murder  both  of  the  unhappy 
youth  and  his  injured  mother.     The  horrors  of  that    J^'^' 
tyrant's  sway  were  closed  by  an  insurrection,  in  which, 
as  far  as  a  single  life  could  atone  for  the  destruction  of  thou- 
sands, his  own  cruel  death  and  protracted  sufferings  might 
be  accepted  as  repayment.     With  him  terminated 
the  male  dynasty  and  the  glory  of  the  Comneni.    ^'^J 
Isaac  Angelus,  who  overthrew  him,  was  descended 
from  the  females  of  the  same  line  ;  and  in  his  nerveless 
and  unworthy  hands,  the  fabric  of  the  empire  which  had 
been  preserved  entire  amid  accumulating  perils  by  the  su- 
perior intellect,  notwithstanding  the  crimes,  of  his  prede- 
cessor, crumbled  insensibly  away.     Cyprus   was  wrested 
from  him  by  a  tributary  ;  Bulgaria  and  Wallachia  asserted 
independence,  and  obtained  an  acknowledcjment  of  their 
native  kings.     The  unwarlike  and  luxurious  emperor  owed 
his  personal  security  to  the  contempt  of  those  revolted  bar- 
barians ;  for  they  were  well  content  that  the  sceptre  should 
be   administered   by  one  whose  indolence  and   weakness 
afforded  them  sure  pledges  of  peace.     Though  safe  from 
foreign  violence,  he  was  still  exposed  to  domestic  treason  ; 
and  a  brother,  Alexius  Angelus,  deprived  him  both 
of  his  throne  and  sight.     The  son  of  the  deposed    ,  ,*qc 
prince,  another  Alexius,  was  spared,  however,  by 
the   usurper.     After  a  while  he   found  means  to  escape, 
and  having  crossed  the  Archipelago,  and  visited  both  Sicily 


^^!^^'  -f'     •■ 


84 


PROPOSAL  OF  YOUNG  ALEXIUS. 


and  Rome,  he  proceeded  towards  the  court  of  Phihp  of 
Suabia,  King  of  the  Romans,  and  husband  of  his  sister 
Irene,  the  widow  of  Tancred,  King  of  Sicily.  On  his  pas- 
sage through  Verona,  he  was  astonished  by  the  great  throngs 
which  we^e  hastening  to  the  camp  at  Venice  ;  and  listening 
to  the  advice  of  those  faithful  attendants  who  had  shared  his 
dangers  and  escape,  he  sent  a  communication  to  the  assem- 
bled barons,  praying  their  assistance  in  the  dehyerance  of 
his  father  and  the  recovery  of  his  crown.  Villehardoum 
thus  reports  their  answer :  "  We  comprehend  your  pro- 
posal :  we  will  send  some  of  our  people  with  your  inaster 
to  King  Philip  to  whom  he  is  going  ;  and,  if  he  is  willing  to 
assist  us  in  the  recovery  of  the  Holy  Land,  we  will  aid  hira 
in  retraining  his  territories,  which  we  are  aware  are  un- 
iustlf  withheld  from  him  and  his  father."  So  ambassadors 
were  despatched  to  the  Valet*  of  Constantinople,  and  to 
Philip  King  of  Germany. 

The  reply  of  Philip  and  Alexius  arrived  soon  after  the 
occupation  of  Zara.  The  Duke  of  Suabia,  though  unable, 
on  account  of  his  differences  both  with  the  pope  and  the 
King  of  France,  to  afford  personal  assistance,  consented  to 
resian  his  brother-in-law  into  the  hands  of  God  and  of  the 
crus'aders ;  and  the  Prince  of  Constantinople  himself  was 
lavish  in  promises.  The  reward  which  he  would  bestow, 
he  said,  should  be  the  richest  which  any  people  had  ever 
received,  and  the  barons  should  have  effectual  assistance  in 
the  deliverance  of  the  Holy  Land.  He  engaged,  after  his 
restoration,  to  put  an  end  to  the  schism  which  distracted 
the  Greek  and  Latin  churches,  and  to  bring  back  the  whole 
empire  of  Romania  to  its  former  spiritual  allegiance  to  St. 
Peter.  Two  hundred  thousand  marks  of  silver  and  provi- 
sions for  the  whole  army  were  to  recruit  their  exhausted 
resources.  He  himself  would  accompany  them  to  Babylon ; 
or,  if  they  preferred  it,  he  would  equip,  at  his  own  charge, 
ten  thousand  men  for  a  year's  service,  and  would  maintain 
during  his  whole  life  five  hundred  knights,  as  standing  guar- 
dians*of  Palestine.  "  Lords,"  concluded  the  ambassadors, 
«  we  have  full  powers  to  ratify  this  treaty,  if  on  your  part 
you  are  favourably  inclined;  and  surely,  as  such  offers 

*  Villehardouin,  p.  36.  Valet  was  the  ordinary  appellation  of  the  chU- 
dren  of  a  noble  house.  Ducange,  on  the  authority  of  Pithou,  con*ider» 
it  to  be  a  diminutive  of  vassal. 


INTRIGUES  OF  MALEK  ADEL. 


85 


'were  never  made  to  any  people  before,  those  who  reject 
them  can  have  no  great  passion  for  glory." 

Vehement    debates    succeeded    these   proposals.      The 
Abbot  de  Vaux  and  the  party  in  the  interest  of  Rome  per- 
tinaciously refused  them.     The  French,  on  the  other  hand, 
with  no  less  ardour  espoused  the  cause  of  Alexius,  who 
was  remotely  allied  to  their  own  princes.     The  Venetians 
remembered  their  long  debt  of  hatred  against  the  Greeks, 
and  calculated,  not  only  upon  its  full  payment,  but  upon  the 
chances  of  much  additional  gain.    Even  those  leaders  with 
whom  the  deliverance  of  Palestine  still  remained  the  chief 
and  primary  object  of  desire  consented  to  this  previous  en- 
terprise on  grounds  of  policy.     Syria,  they  said,  was  not  to 
be  won,  m  the  hrst  instance,  upon  its  own  shores ;  and 
they  who  would  become  permanent  masters  of  the  sepul- 
chre of  Christ  must,  beforehand,  assure  themselves  either 
ot  hgypt  or  Asia  Minor. 

Another  motive  has  been  assigned  for  the  eagerness  with 
which  Dandolo  advocated  this  diversion  from  the  original 
purpose  of  the  expedition.     Maiek  Adel,  the  Sultan  of 
iJamascus,  is  said  to  have  contemplated  with  very  reason- 
able apprehension  the    assembly  of  the  Christian  arma- 
ment at  \  enice  ;  and  by  a  secret  negotiation  with  the  do^e, 
the  opportune  payment  of  a  large  bribe,  and  the  assurance 
ot  a  free  trade  to  Alexandria,  to  have  obtained  a  promise 
that  he  would  either  postpone  or  frustrate  the  intention  of 
the  crusaders.     The  continuator  of  the  chronicle  of  Wil- 
liam of  Tyre  states  even  the  singular  method  by  which  the 
sultan  obtained  the  money  needed   for  this  purpose.     He 
assembled  at  Cairo  all  the  Christian  priests  of  Ihe  neiah- 
bowrmg  country,  and  informing  them  that  a  new  armament 
was  gathering  m  Europe,  he  commanded  them  forthwith 
to  provide  arms,  stores,  and  horses  for  his  service.     The 
bishops  replied  that  their  sacred  function  forbade  them  from 
mtermeddhng  with  war.     "Be  it  so,"  replied  the  despot. 
If  you  dechne  fighting  in  person,  you  must  furnish  men 
to  fight  m  your  place  !"  and  having  demanded  an  account 
of  their  revenues,  he  confiscated  the  whole  property  to  his 
own  use.     This  plunder  of  the  Christian  church  was  em- 
ployed m  the  corruption  of  those  who  had  avowed  themselves 
the  champions  of  the  Cross. 

Vol  I  ~H  ""^  '^^  «^ajority  of  barons  prevailed ;  nos 


'jbo     J^ttB 


.  •"■» 


86 


SUBMISSION  TO  THE  POPE. 


REPLY  OF  INNOCENT. 


87 


\ 


) 


A.  D. 

1203. 


were  they  opposed  by  all  the  ecclesiastics.     The  Marquis 
of  Montferrat,  the  Doge  of  Venice,  the  Counts  Baldwin, 
Louis,   and  of   St.  Paul  continued  the  treaty,   swore  to 
observe  its  provisions,  and  affixed  their  seals.     The  discon- 
tented party    remonstrated  in  vain,   and  many  of  them, 
either   openly  or  by  stealth,   abandoned   their   comrades. 
Reguiald  de  Montmirail,  a  potent  baron  of  France, 
requested  employment  on  an  embassy  to  Syria,  and 
did  not  scruple  to  swear,  with  his  right  hand  upon 
the  saints,  that  he  and  his  knights  would  re-embark  within 
fifteen  days  after  they  had  completed  their  mission.     He 
sailed,  but    never  returned.     Simon  de  Montfort  enlisted 
under  the  banner  of  the  King  of  Hungary,  himself  a  cru- 
sader, whom  he  had  so  recently  opposed  at  Zara ;  but  he 
atoned  for  this  inconsistency  by  good  service  afterward  in 
the  Holy  Land.     Others  there  were  who  shrank  from  the 
prospect  of  danger  as  they  approached  nearer  to  its  en- 
counter, and  secretly  withdrew  from  their  ranks.     Few  of 
them,  however,  obtained  the  safety  which  they  coveted  :  the 
boors   of   Sclavonia   cruelly  massacred  one    party  which 
attempted  to  gain  their  homes  by  land  ;  and  of  five  hundred 
others,  who  threw  themselves  into  a  merchant- ship,  not  one 
survived  its  wreck. 

These  frequent  desertions  were  observed  with  much 
apprehension  by  the  chiefs,  and  in  order  to  remove  one 
cause  of  discontent,  and  to  quiet  those  superstitious  fears 
which  in  many  instances  had  alienated  their  followers,  they 
resolved  to  make  their  peace  with  Innocent,  whose  com- 
mands they  had  transgressed.  Their  apology  was  founded 
on  the  plea  of  necessity.  "  The  barons,"  they  wrote,  "  im- 
plore your  forgiveness  for  the  capture  of  Zara,  which,  owing 
to  the  falsehood  of  those  who  have  passed  on  to  other  ports, 
they  were  reduced  to  undertake,  in  order  to  keep  their  host 
together ;  and  they  assure  you,  as  their  father,  that  what- 
ever you  may  command,  they  are,  in  all  respects,  ready  to 
obey."  It  is  plain  that  the  Venetians,  even  if  they  had  been 
so  inclined,  could  not  join  in  these  excuses  without  false- 
hood. They  had  not  been  the  subjects  but  the  creators  of 
the  necessity  thus  advanced  as  a  plea ;  and  but  for  them 
Zara  would  have  been  untouched.  Of  the  sincerity  with 
which  even  their  confederates  now  humbled  themselves  at 
the  feet  of  the  pontiff  a  sufficient  estimate  may  be  formed, 


when  we  call  to  mind  that  they  well  knew  the  fresh  enter- 
prise upon  which  they  had  engaged  was  yet  more  strongly 
disapproved  by  Innocent  than  that  which  they  were  seeking 
to  extenuate. 

As  yet,  however,  the  pope  was  unacquainted  with  the 
existence  of  the  new  treaty  entered  into  by  the  barons  who 
thus  solicited  his  absolution  ;  and  he  replied  to  them  in  a 
tone  of  gentleness  little  merited  either  by  their  past  or  in- 
tended disobedience.  He  answered  that  he  well  knew  the 
treachery  of  others  had  compelled  them  reluctantly  to  the 
course  which  they  had  adopted,  and  that,  softened  by  their 
repentance,  he  assoiled  them  from  the  sin.  For  the  time 
to  come,  they  must  direct  all  their  energies  to  the  recovery 
of  the  Holy  Land,  and  hasten  onward  to  its  shores  without 
further  delay.  If  the  Venetians,  as  yet  untouched  by 
remorse,  would  seek  his  forgiveness,  they  also  should  be  in- 
cluded in  the  absolution  ;  and  the  confederates  might  then 
sail  together  in  entire  mutual  confidence.  If,  on  the  con- 
trary, they  should  unhappily  persist  in  their  contumacy, 
nevertheless,  from  the  urgent  necessity  of  the  case,  he 
would  permit  the  barons  to  employ  the  ships  of  that  still 
excommunicated  state  ;  but  they  must,  in  all  ways,  as  far 
as  in  them  lay,  endeavour  to  separate  themselves  from  such 
enemies  of  God. 

Unchanged  by  these  remonstrances,  the  Venetians  con- 
tinued their  eager  preparations  for  vengeance  upon  the 
Greeks.  In  addition  to  other  causes  of  enmity,  they  were 
deeply  jealous  of  the  superior  ascendency  which  the  Pisans, 
their  great  commercial  rivals,  had  been  permitted  to  acquire 
in  Constantinople  ;  and  against  Alexius  personally  they 
entertained  an  inveterate  animosity,  because  he  had  refused 
to  discharge  the  arrears  (200,000  golden  besants)  of  the 
indemnity  which  had  been  promised  by  Manuel,  to  compen- 
sate the  outrage  of  his  confiscation.  On  the  morning  after 
the  celehration  of  Easter,  the  allied  forces  quitted  their  can- 
tonments in  Zara,  and  encamped  on  the  seashore.  Then, 
in  order  to  strike  profound  terror  into  their  rebellious  colo- 
nists, to  chastise  their  past  revolts,  and  to  prevent  a  repeti- 
tion of  them  in  future,  the  Venetians,  in  defiance  of  Inno- 
cent's renewed  protection,  razed  the  walls  of  the  city  to  the 
ground.  Meantime,  the  young  Alexius  arrived,  and  was 
welcomed  with  great  joy.    All  thbigs  were  prepared  for  the 


■  --^^^l^'^^f^'?-^:*^ 


to"  ^~ 


88 


DISCONTENT  IN  CORFU. 


voyage  ;  and  the  general  ardour  with  which  it  was  under- 
taken was  by  no  means  checked  by  the  receipt  of  a  second 
mission  from  Innocent  to  the  barons,  severely  denouncing 
their  fresh  guilt,  prohibiting  the  design  in  which  they  were 
engaged,  and,  not  unreasonably,  expressing  doubts  of  the 
sincerity  of  that  repentance  which  tiiey  had  so  lately  pre- 
tended, and  for  the  sake  of  which  he  had  relieved  them 
from  spiritual  censures.  He  concluded  by  noticing  the 
recent  pillage  of  Zara,  the  spoil  of  her  churches  by  the 
Venetians,  and  the  willing  participation  of  the  counts  in 
that  sacrilegious  booty.* 

Notwithstanding  this  denunciation  the  fleet  set  sail.  As 
it  touched  at  Durazzo,  Alexius  received  an  acknowledgment 
of  fealty  from  that  city,  the  western  key  of  the  empire ; 
and  thence,  with  a  fair  wind,  the  confederates  passed  on  to 
their  appointed  rendezvous  in  Corfu.  There,  disembarking, 
they  refreshed  their  men  and  horses  in  rich  and  plenteous 
quarters  (the  fabled  gardens  of  Alcinous  and  his  Phoeacians) 
for  more  than  three  weeks.  The  landing  of  Alexius  was 
marked  with  distinguished  honours ;  numbers  of  brave 
knights  and  sergeants  bestrode  their  war-horses  and  went 
out  to  swell  the  pomp  of  his  entry.  His  pavilion  was 
pitched  in  the  midst  of  the  camp,  and  the  Marquis  of  Mont- 
ferrat,  to  whose  care  he  had  been  especially  confided,  raised 
his  own  by  its  side. 

Their  repose,  however,  was  interrupted  by  fresh  intestine 
discontents.  Conscience  or  cowardice  awakened  alarm  in 
more  than  half  the  army,  and  many  knights  entered  into  a 
secret  compact  to  remain  in  the  island,  and  suffer  those  who 
wished  it  to  proceed  on  the  perilous  undertaking  which 
themselves  had  opposed  from  the  beginning.  The  chief 
leaders,  upon  learning  this  conspiracy,  acted  with  great 
promptness.     Taking  with  them  in  their  train  the  Prince 


*  Ramusio,  with  a  feeling  little  in  accordance  with  that  generally  en- 
tertained by  his  countrymen  for  the  supremacy  asserted  by  Rome,  has 
endeavoured  to  extenuate  their  disobedience  by  one  of  the  most  barefaced 
violations  of  truth  which  ever  flowed  from  the  pen  of  an  historian. 
Deindevero,pi(B  caiiscesvasor,  hinocenthis  III.  Ponti/ex  Majcirmts,  pios 
milites  hortabatur,ut.  Ecclesiam  Graecam  ejvsqve  Patriarcham  Constan- 
tinopolitanvm,  de  sanctiore  patrum  ciirricvlo  deflectentem,  m  viam  re- 
ducerent  Itaque  b'llum.  Constant inopnlitminm,  quod  sine  summd  im- 
pietate  repudiari  non  poterat,  a  Veneto  et  Gallo,  summis  opibus,  it 
nummd  pariter  alacritate  susceptum.    (Lib.  I.  p.  3.) 


peasscTjr 


MAGNIFICENCE  OF  THE  ARMAMENT. 


89 


of  Constantinople  and  all  the  ecclesiastics,  they  repaired  to 
a  valley  in  which  the  recusants  were  holding  an  assembly. 
As  they  came  in  sight,  each  party  dismounted.  The  barons 
fell  upon  their  knees,  refusing,  with  tears,  to  arise  until 
they  were  assured  that  their  brother-pilgrims  would  not 
desert  them.  The  latter  were  deeply  moved  by  the  sight ; 
they  also  wept  bitterly  ;  and,  after  a  short  deliberation  apart, 
they  agreed  to  remain  in  company  till  the  ensuing  feast  of 
St.  Michael,  provided  the  barons  would  swear  upon  the 
saints,  that  afterward,  within  fifteen  days  from  the  time  of 
their  demanding  them,  they  should  be  supplied  with  vessels 
for  their  transport  to  Syria. 

This  compact  having  been  ratified  and  sworn  to,  they  re- 
embarked,  and  quitted  Corfu  on  the  eve  of  Pentecost.  The 
martial  spirit  of  Villehardouin  is  kindled  afresh  upon  the 
renewal  of  activity.  "  The  day,"  he  says,  "  was  bright  and 
cheerful,  and  the  winds  were  soft  and  favourable  as  they 
spread  their  sails  before  them.  And  I,  Geoffrey,  the  Mar- 
shal of  Champagne,  who  have  dictated  this  recital,  having 
been  present  at  the  matters  therein  related,  and  conscious 
that  it  contains  nothing  but  truth,  bear  witness  that  so  glo- 
rious a  siaht  had  never  been  beheld  before.  Far  as  our 
view  could  extend,  the  sea  was  covered  with  the  sails  of 
ship  and  galley  ;  our  hearts  were  lifled  up  with  joy,  and 
we  thought  our  armament  might  undertake  the  conquest  of 
the  whole  world."  Nor  was  this  the  impression  of  such 
only  as  held  command.  While  doubling  the  promontory  of 
Malea,  they  fell  in  with  two  vessels  filled  with  knights,  pil- 
grims, and  sergeants,  returning  from  the  Holy  Land.  They 
were  some  of  those  who  had  departed  from  their  agreement 
of  meetinor  at  Venice,  and  were  now  ashamed  to  declare 
themselves.  The  Count  of  Flanders  sent  his  barofe  to  in- 
quire  their  destination  and  quality ;  and  as  it  approached 
the  vessels,  a  sergeant,  struck  by  the  gallant  bearing  of  the 
fleet  before  him,  leaped  on  board,  and  cried  out  to  his  less 
enthusiastic  comrades,  "  Give  me  my  baggage,  for  I  shall 
join  these  people  who  appear  certain  of  subduing  the 
land  !" 

Negropont,  Andros,  and  Abydos  received  them  as  peace- 
ably as  Durazzo  ;  and  the  Byzantine  court,  lost  in  sloth 
and  luxury,  either  disbelieved  or  disregarded  the  news  of 
iheir  approach.    No  secrecy  had  been  affected:  both  the 

H2 


90 


FIRST  SIGHT  OF  CONSTANTINOPLE. 


POSITION  AT  SCUTARI. 


91 


measures  taken  by  the  exiled  prince,  and  the  consequent 
design  of  the  crusaders,  had  been  long  openly  avowed  i  and 
it  ought  to  have  been  easy  for  Greece,  formed  by  nature  a 
maritime  pov^rer  and  at  that  time  sharing  with  Ve<iice  the 
dominion  of  the  seas,  to  have  made  some  great  effort  be- 
fore her  capital  was  besieged.  It  has  been  said,  that  but  a 
few  years  before  this  invasion  the  dockyards  of  Constan- 
tinople could  furnish  one  thousand  six  hundred  vessels  of 
war.  Admitting  the  number  to  be  exaggerated,  the  very 
exaggeration  testifies  the  greatness  of  her  naval  resources. 
But  the  emperor,  devoted  to  ease  and  sensuality,  had  in- 
trusted his  arsenals  to  a  brother-in-law,  by  whose  base 
cupidity  the  state  was  crippled.  Stores,  arms,  equipments 
— ^the  very  hulks  themselves — had  been  broken  up  and  sold 
to  swell  the  private  wealth  of  Michael  Stryphnus  ;  and 
when  the  rumour  of  impending  danger  prompted  him  to 
restore  the  navy  which  he  had  destroyed,  he  was  forbidden 
to  lift  an  axe  in  the  forests,  reserved,  as  he  was  informed 
by  their  guardian  eunuchs,  not  for  the  lowly  provision  of 
ship-timber,  but  for  the  more  exalted  pleasures  of  the  im- 
perial chase. 

The  huge  and  heavy-laden  armament  of  the  crusaders 
proceeded  through  the  intricate  navigation  of  the  Archi- 
pelago, and  threaded  the  narrow  strait  of  the  Dardanelles, 
without  hinderance  or  interruption.  As  the  sea  of  Mar- 
mora widened  before  them,  its  bosom  covered  with  sails 
presented  a  sight  of  incomparable  beauty ;  till,  three  leagues 
short  of  Constantinople,  they  neared  the  land,  and  obtained 
their  first  view  of  that  great  and  gorgeous  metropolis. 
Their  feelings  cannot  be  doubted  ;  nor  can  they  be  better 
expressed  than  in  the  words  of  that  eyewitness  who  so 
deeply  shared  them.  "  When  they  contemplated  the  lofty 
walls  and  goodly  towers  that  enclosed  it  around,  the  gay 
palaces  and  glittering  churches  that  seemed  innumerable, 
the  immense  dimensions  of  the  city  denoting  it  was  the 
queen  of  the  earth,  they  could  hardly  believe  their  senses ; 
nor  was  there  any  man,  however  bold,  whose  heart  did  not 
tremble  within  him.  This  was  no  marvel ;  for  never  since 
the  creation  of  the  world  had  such  an  enterprise  been 
attempted  by  such  a  handful  of  men." 

The  prudence  of  Dandolo  saved  them  from  destruction 
in  the  outset.    The  barons  landed  and  held  a  council  in  the 


minster  of  St.  Stephen's,  a  pleasant  village,  still  known  to 
us  by  its  former  name,  and  now  chiefly  distinguished  b}^  its 
immense  powder  magazines.     It  can  be  no  matter  of  sur- 
prise that  some  impatience  was  expressed  for  an  immediate 
general  disembarkation  ;   but,  in  opposition  to  this  wish, 
the  doge  advanced  his  own  former  knowledge  and  expe- 
rience of  the  country.     The  continent,  he  said,  was  of  vast 
extent  and  thickly  peopled,  and  the  soldiers,  being  in  want 
of  provisions,  would  scatter  themselves  over  it  in  foraging 
parties,  and  be  cut  off  in  detail.     Far  better  would  it  be  to 
make  for  the  islands  in  sight,  and  having  there  refreshed 
themselves,  to  proceed  at  once  to  the  attack  of  the  city. 
This  advice  prevailed.     They  passed  the  night  at  anchor, 
and  on  the  morrow,  the  feast  of  St.  John  the  Baptist,  hav- 
ing displayed  their  banners  and  standards  on  the  turrets, 
and  fenced  the  sides  of  their  vessels  with  a  pavissade  of 
shields  close  locked  together,  each  man  cast  a  glance  upon 
his  arms,  well  knowing  that  the  time  was  at  hand  when  he 
would  need  their  assistance.     As  they  set  sail,  the  wind 
bore  them  within  a  bowshot  of  Constantinople,  and  some 
of  the  ships  were  assailed  with  missiles  from  the  throngs 
which  clustered  on  its  walls  and  towers.     It  is  probable, 
although  Villehardouin  is  far  from  confessing  it,  that  a 
slight  confusion  ensued,  for  he  admits  that  they  abandoned 
their  design  on  the  islands  as  completely  as  if  it  had  never 
been  proposed  ;  and,  without  loss  of  time,  crossed  over  to 
the  Asiatic  shore,  and  anchored  off  Chalcedon,  where  one 
of  the  fairest  palaces  of  the  emperor  received  the  generals, 
and  the  troops  were  disembarked  and  encamped.     On  the 
following  morning  the  fleet  sailed  onward  to  Scutari,  im- 
mediately opposite  to  Constantinople,  and  was    followed 
thither  by  the  army.     The  Greeks,  on  the  European  shore, 
made  a  corresponding   movement,  and  encamped  on  the 
outskirts  of  Pera. 

The  nine  days  passed  at  Scutari  were  not  without  inci- 
dents. A  party  of  foragers,  not  above  eighty  lances  (less 
than  two  hundred  and  fifty  men),  came  unexpectedly,  at 
about  three  leagues  from  the  camp,  upon  the  tents  of  the 
great  Duke  Stryphnus,  guarded  by  five  hundred  Greeks. 
The  Franks  were  of  too  chivalrous  a  spirit  to  be  alarmed 
by  disparity  of  numbers ;  and  the  Greeks  gave  way  before 


,.^^. 


92        MESSAGE  FROM  THE  EMPEROR REPLY. 

their  charge.  Horses,  palfreys,  mules,  tents,  paviUons,  and 
countless  other  necessaries  and  luxuries  were  the  prize  ol 
the  victors  ;  who,  on  their  return,  received  the  congratula- 
tions of  their  comrades,  among  whom  they  liberally  divided 

the  spoil. 

On  the  morning  after  this  first  essay  of  arms,  a  messen- 
ger arrived  from  the  emperor.  He  was  a  Lombard,  who, 
having  presented  his  letters  of  credence  and  received  per- 
mission to  speak,  delivered  himself  as  follows  :  «  Lords,  the 
emperor  Alexius  is  not  ignorant  that  you  are  the  most 
potent  princes  in  Europe  save  crowned  kings,  and  are  na- 
tives of  the  most  warlike  country.  But  he  marvels  much 
why  you,  being  Christians,  and  he  also  a  Christian,  are  thus 
come  into  his  territories.  He  knows  you  are  bound  for  the 
Holy  Land,  to  rescue  the  cros:*  and  sepulchre  of  our  Lord. 
If  yoQ  are  in  want,  he  will  cheerfully  bestow  upon  you  food 
and  necessaries,  so  you  depart  from  his  land.  He  desires 
to  avoid  doing  you  injury  ;  not  because  he  lacks  the  power, 
for  if  you  were  twenty  times  your  number,  you  could  not 
depart  hence  without  his  permission,  nor  prevent  his  de- 
stroying you  if  it  were  his  pleasure." 

He  was  answered  by  Conon  de  Bethune,  a  brave,  pru- 
dent, and  eloquent  knight,  whom  the  doge  and  the  barons 
deputed  as  their  spokesman.  "  Fair  sir,  you  have  declared 
that  your  lord  greatly  marvels  that  our  lords  and  barons 
have  entered  his  empire  and  territories.  They  are  not  his : 
for  he  holds  them  unjustly,  and  has  sinned  against  God 
and  reason.  They  are  the  right  of  his  nephew,  who  is 
seated  here  among  us,  and  is  the  son  of  his  brother  the 
emperor  Isaac.  If  your  master  will  throw  himself  upon  his 
nephew's  mercy,  and  will  restore  the  crown  and  empire,  we 
will  intercede  that  his  offence  shall  be  forgiven,  and  a  suffi- 
ciency be  assigned  to  him  to  enable  him  to  live  in  splendour. 
As  for  messages  of  this  kind,  be  not  so  rash  as  to  trust 
yourself  hither  with  them  again." 

This  mutual  defiance  having  been  exchanged,  hostilities 
were  not  long  delayed.  No  post  could  be  better  adapted 
than  Scutari  for  observation  of  the  city  which  the  crusaders 
were  preparing  to  attack.  From  the  heights  above  it  might 
be  discerned  the  seven  hills  upon  which  Constantinople 
was  proudly  reared ;  and  almost  all  the  four  hundred  and 


Bsban'e  I 

Kem    Do"! 


1( 

izHkfiaSitllaTae    \ 


BfUfr  Bei  Baktchezi ' 


hib.  bv  ,U-J.H.iq<ft:  X.r. 


I 


DEFENCES  OF  CONSTANTINOPLE. 


93 


seventy-eight  towers  which,  in  a  circuit  of  nearly  eighteen* 
miles,   studded  the  long  terrace  of  her  walls.      The  eye 
might   penetrate   the    gentle  curve   of  the   Golden   Horn 
(Chrysoceras),   that  arm  of  the  Sea  of  Marmora  which, 
forming  the  port  of  the  city,  bathes  the>iorth-western  side 
of  the  unequal  triangle  on  which  it  stands.     The  apex  of 
this  triangle,  once  called  the  Acropolis,  now  glitterina  with 
the  palace  and  gardens  of  the  Seraglio,  is  found  at  a  point 
immediately  opposite  to  Scutari  and  fronting  the  mouth  of 
the  Bosphorus.     Following  the  southern  shore  of  the  Gol- 
den Horn  for  about  six  miles,  the  fortifications  incline  to 
the  south-west,  at  the  palace  of  Blachemae.    Hence,  a  strong 
double  wall  of  lofty  height,  built  by  Theodosius,  and  a  deep 
fosse,  eight  yards  in  width,  protect  the  sole  approach  from 
land,  and  connect  themselves  at  the  Heptapyrgium  or  Seven 
Towers,  with  the  Golden  Gate  and  that  line  of  ramparts 
which  overlooks  the  Sea  of  Marmora.     On  the  north  of  the 
Golden  Horn   stand  the  extensive  suburbs  of   Pera  and 
Galata.    From  the  fortress  known  as  the  Tower  of  Galata, 
to  the  Seraglio  Point,  at  the  modern  Alai  Kiosk,  a  breadth 
of  about  five  hundred  yards,  a  massive  double  chain,  sup- 
ported at  convenient  distances  by  huge  wooden  piles,  and 
effectually  forbidding  ingress,  was  drawn  across  the  har- 
bour.    Behind  this  chain  were  ranged  twenty  galleys,  all 
which  the  avarice  of  Stryphnus  had  permitted  to  remain  of 
the  once  magnificent  navy  of  his  country. 

The  memorable  events  which  followed  have  been  un- 
usually, perhaps  singularly,  fortunate  in  the  contemporary 
illustration  which  they  have  obtained.  A  writer  not  less 
competent  to  procure  authentic  information  than  the  Mar- 
shal of  Champagne,  and  apparently  not  less  faithful  in 
recording  it,  was  found  among  the  Greeks ;  and  by  a  com- 
parison of  the  pages  of  Nicetas  with  those  of  Villehardouin 
we  obtain  a  living  portraiture  of  the  feelings  and  the  actions 
both  of  the  besieged  and  the  besiegers ;  we  become  inti- 
mately acquainted  with  all  that  was  inflicted  and  was  suf- 
fered ;  we  learn,  in  detail,  every  thing  which  intra  muros 

*  The  dimensions  of  Constantinople  are  given  very  differently  by  dif- 
ferent travellers  ;  we  have  adopted  those  assigned,  after  personal  recon- 
noissance,  by  the  late  Dr.  Clarke.  Gihbon  is  nnwilling  to  allow  the 
walls  a  circumference  of  more  than  fourteen  miles,  including  Pera  and 


t 


94  NICETAS. 

peccatur  ct  extra.     Nicetas  was  a  citizen  of  Chonffi,  in 
Phrygia,  the  Colosse  of  St.  Paul ;  and  he  had  raised  him- 
self, successively,  to  the  high  honours  of  senator,  judge  of 
the  veil,  and  logothete  of  the  empire.     The  importance  of 
the  last-named"office  will  be  best  estimated  by  the   repre- 
sentation of  the  historian  himself,  who  compares  it  to  the 
chancellorship  of  the  Latin  monarchies,  and  assigns  to  it 
the  supreme  guardianship  of  the  laws  and  revenue.     After 
sharing  in  the  miseries  of  the  capture  of  Constantinople,  he 
retired  to  Nice,  and  there  composed  his  elaborate  history, 
which  embraces  somewhat  more  than  his  own  times  ;  com- 
mencing with  the  death  of  Alexius  Comnenus  in  1117,  and 
proceeding  to  the  year  which  followed  those  transactions 
of  which  we  are  now  immediately  treating.     Of  the  facts 
which  concern  our  present  narration  he  was,  for  the  most 
part,  an  eyewitness  ;  and  of  those  things  which  he  presents 
from  accredited  rumour  or  on  private  authority,  his  station 
and  talents  rendered  him  a  fit  and  able  judge.     To  those 
who  seek  only  for  agreeable  reading  his  style  is  most  re- 
pulsive ;  and,  in  order  to  be  understood,  it  must  be  divested 
of  much  affectation  and  many  florid  and  inflated  metaphors. 
One  of  his  editors,  indeed,  has  broadly  stated  that  he  would 
rather  work  in  the  mines  than  translate  from  Nicetas  when 
he  indulgesin  the  poetic  vein.*     But,  having  once  made 
allowance  for  this  tendency,  it  is  not  difficult  to  separate  the 
exaggerations  of  his  rhetoric  from  the  sobriety  of  truth. 
That  he  regarded  the  invaders  in  general,  and  the  Venetians 
in  particular,  with  the  most  bitter  detestation,  renders  him 
not  the  less  desirable  witness  for  our  purpose  ;  for  he  thus 
becomes  a  more  effectual  counterpoise  to  the  Latin  authori- 
ties.    And  it  is  not  a  little  to  the  credit  of  his  impartiality, 
that  he  speaks  of  the  usurper  Alexius,  even  after  his  fall, 
with  generous  and  unexpected,  perhaps  whh  undeserved, 
approval.      "  His  gentleness  and  mercy,"  says  the  pane- 
gyrist,  "  were  of  no  common   order ;    he  never  tore  out 
eyes  nor  mutilated  limbs  ;  he  had  no  pleasure  in  butchery  ; 
and  during  his   reign  no  matron,  through  his  agency,  was 
clad  in  mourning."     What  volumes  are  compressed  in  these 
few  laudatory  words,  in  testimony  of  the  general  horrors  of 
the  Byzantine  government  I 

*  Wolflus,  speaking  of  his  Pramium, 


iBii 


PASSAGE  OF  THE  BOSPHORUS. 


95 


It  was  of  some  importance  that  the  disposition  of  the 
populace  of  Constantinople  should    be   ascertained ;  with 
what  degree  of  attachment  they  regarded  their   existing 
ruler,  with  what  recollections  they  turned  to  their  deposed 
princes.    For  this  purpose,  on  the  morning  after  their  haughty 
dismissal  of  the  Greek  envoy,  the  Doge  of  Venice  and  the 
Marquis  of  Montferrat  embarked  on  board  a  galley,  bearing 
with  them  the  young  Alexius.     Accompanied  by  a  train  of 
knights  in  other  vessels,  they  rowed  under  the  walls,  more 
in  an  amicable  than  a  warlike  guise,  from  the  point  of  the 
Golden  Horn  to  the  Seven  Towers.     Along  this  line  they 
exhibited  the  prince,  proclaimed  his  wrongs,  appealed  to 
the  compassion  and  the  fidelity  of  his  subjects,  and  sought  to 
awaken  both  their  fears  and  their  affections.    But  the  attempt 
wjis  fruitless,  and  the  throngs  on  the  walls  were  either  silent 
or  made  hostile  demonstrations.     It  may  be  doubted  whether 
they  entertained  any  real  preference  for  either  of  the  con- 
tending parties  ;  enslaved  by  a  debasing  tyranny,  they  were 
careless  beneath  what  despot  they  should  crouch,  and   the 
feeling  which   most  strongly  influenced  them  was  dread 
of  that  hand  which  could  be  more  immediately  raised  to 
punish. 

On  the  tenth  morning  (July  6)  nfter  their  arrival,  it  was 
resolved  to  attempt  the  passage  of  the  Bosphorus ;  and  the 
part  selected  was  not  far  below  the  spot  ennobled  by  the 
bridge  of  Darius.     Before  they  addressed  themselves  to  this 
dangerous  enterprise,  for  such,  previously  to  the  event,  it 
might  justly  be  considered,  mass  was  celebrated   in  the 
presence  of  the  whole  army.     The  bishops  and  clergy  ex- 
horted their  people,  instructing  them  that  in  this  extremity, 
m  which  none  could  foresee  what  might  be  God's  pleasure 
concerning  him,  it  was  the  duty  of  every  one  to  confess  his 
sins   and  dispose  of  his  worldly  possessions.     This  coun- 
sel was  received  with  fervent  zeal  and  devotion.     At  length, 
the   appointed  moment   having  arrived,  the  vanguard  em- 
barked  under  the  command  of  Count  Baldwin,  who  was 
f  jllowed  by  more  good  lances,  archers,  and  crossbowmen  than 
any  other  lord  of  the  army.     Four  other  divisions  succeeded, 
respectively  led  by  Henry,  brother  of  the  Count  of  Flanders, 
the  Counts  of  St.  Paul  and  Blois,  and  Matthew  of  Montmo- 
rency.    In  the  last  were  enrolled  Villehardouin  himself  and 
the  flower  of  the  Gallic  chivalry.    The  largest  band,  Lom- 


96 


THE  GOLDEN  HORN  FORCED. 


ADVANCE  UNDER  THE  WALLS. 


97 


bards,  Tuscans,  Germans,  and  Piedmontese,  composed  the 
rear,  which  was  intrusted  to  the  Marquis  of  Montferrat. 
The  mass  of  soldiery  crowded  the  heavy  vessels  under  the 
guidance  and  protection  of  the  galleys,  and  the  knights, 
armed  from  head  to  foot,  with  their  horses  ready  housed  and 
saddled,  entered  the  palanders.     As  the  day  advanced,  the 
sun  shone  brightly,  and  displayed  Alexius  with  his  countless 
hosts  awaiting  the  onset  on  the  opposite  shore.    The  trumpets 
sounded,  and   the  galleys  moved  forward,  each  towing  a 
heavier  transport  •,  none  asked  who  was  to  be  foremost,  but 
every  man  pushed  on  with  all  his  might  to  land.     As  they 
neared  the  western  bank,  the  knights  started  up  from  the 
palanders,  and,  armed  as  they  were,  helm-laced,  and  lance 
in  hand,  leaped  baldrick-deep  into  the  sea.     Nor  were  the 
archers,  sergeants,  and  arbelestriers  less   eager  than  their 
lords,  each  company  forming  on  the   spot  where  their  ves- 
sels touched  the  ground  ;  and  the  Greeks,  after  a  faint  show 
of  resistance,  fled  before  the  lances  crossed  each  other.    As 
soon  as  the  shore  was  cleared,  the  ports  were  opened,  the 
bridges  let  down  from  the  palanders,  and  the  horses  having 
disembarked,   the  knights  mounted,  and  the  six  divisions 
formed  according  to  preconcerted  order.     The  van,  under 
Count  Baldwin,  advanced  to  the  camp  from  which  Alexius 
had  beheld  their  landing  ;  it  was  already  abandoned,  and 
afforded  a  rich  booty  to  the  conquerors.     For  the  night, 
they  took  post  near  the  tower  of  Galata,  in  a  quarter  nam^d 
Stenon,  which  was  at  that  time,   as  it  is  now  under  its 
modern  denomination  Hassa  Kai,  allotted  to  the  .lews.    At 
dawn  of  the  following  day,  they  repulsed  a  sortie  from  the 
tower,   and  gaining  possession  of  its  gate  before  the  fugi- 
tives were  able  to  close  it,  they  stormed  the  castle  with  great 
slaughter,  and  established  themselves  within  its  walls.     The 
possession  of  this  fortress  materially  assisted  the  operations 
against  the  harbour,  the  mouth  of  which  it  commanded.    A 
favourable  breeze  sprang  up,  and  the  Venetian  galleys,  set- 
ting all  sail,  bore  down  upon  the  huge  chain,  without  mo- 
lestation from  the  shore.     For  a  while  it  resisted  the  shock, 
and  the  mariners  endeavoured,  but  in  vain,  to  sever  its  massive 
links  with   gigantic  shears   constructed  ft)r  the  purjwse. 
At  length,  one  vessel,  more   fortunate  than  its  mates,  and 
realizing  the  gooj  omen  of  its  name.  The  Eagle  {CAquila), 
succeeded  in  breaking  through  the  boom.     The  whole  navy 


tnumphantly  followed,  and  the  total  destruction  of  the  little 
squadron  opposed  to  it  ensued.  Some  of  the  vessels  were 
instantly  captured,  some  ran  under  the  city  walls  and  were 
sunk,  after  having  been  abandoned  by  their  crews,  many 
of  whom  clung  to  the  fragments  of  the  broken  chain,  still 
suspended  from  its  palisades,  and  gained  the  land  by  swarm- 
ing along  them  as  on  a  rope. 

The  assault  of  the  city  now  became  an  object  of  discus- 
T"'m   .u      i  ^^^  s^'^-line  be  attempted  from  the  port  ?  or 
should  the  efforts   of  the  besiegers  be  directed  against  the 
long  western  wall  which  fronted  the  land  ?     The  Venetians 
accustomed  to  maritime  operations,  and  confident  of  victory' 
on  their  own  element,  promised  to  mount  the  ramparts   by 
planting  ladders  from  their  ships.     The  French  knights,  on 
the  other  hand,  preferred  the  solid  earth  and  the  open  plain. 
I' earless  while  mounted  on  their  steeds  and  couchin/theh: 
lances,  they  shrank  from  a  mode  of  warfare  with  which  they 
were  imperfectly  acquainted.     In   the  end,   it  was  deter- 
mined to  make  a  combined  attack  both  by  sea  and  land  •  each 
nation  choosing  that  method  of  approach  with  which  it  was 
most  familiar. 

After  four  days'  rest  the  fleet  moved  up  the  harl>our,  and 
the  land  forces  advanced  at  the  same  time  alona  the  shore 
m  order  to  round  the  head  of  the  gulf  and  tak?  post  unde^ 
the  walls.     A  march  of  about  seven  miles  brought  them  to 
the  extremity  of  the  Golden  Horn,  where  the  little  rivers 
iiarbyses  and  Cydaris,  uniting  their  beds,  discharge  them- 
selves by  a  single  channel  into  a  small  bay  ;  which,7rom  the 
punty  of  its  waters  and  its  abundant  produce  of  fish,  is 
known  to  modern  ears  as  Lcs  Eaux  Donees  ;  a  far  more  pic- 
turesque title  than  that  given  it  by  the  Turks,  Kmt-hani^^  or 
by  the  present  Greeks,  Karfaneos,  both  of  which  names  refer 
only  to  the  paper-mills  now  deforming  the  beauty  of  the 
scene.      The  passage  of  these  streams  might  haVe  been 
easily  defended  ;   but  the  Greeks  had  been  contented  to 
break  dovvn  the  stone  bridge  which  traversed  them,  and  to 
retire  within  their  walls.     A  day  and  a  night  completed  its 
reparation  ;  and  though  the  besieged  at  the  lowest  estimate 
outnumbered  the  besiegers  in  the  proportion  of  twenty  to 
one,    they  looked  on  without  venturing  to  oppose.     The  six 

wUh^SSiX«"n?l"''.'iP°"")'"'^""-    ^^'^^  •"  '^'^'^e'-"  campaigns. 
Vol  j  .lift     *^^S^^^"es  and  commissariat  returns,  they  are  for  tto 


!Hffc"4-'ity;au.<»»Jitfi . 


( 


98 


DANGER  OF  THE  CAMP. 


THE  FIRST  ASSAULT. 


99 


divisions  passed  the  river  in  succession,  and  sat  down  before 
the  city.     Too  few  for  a  regular  investment,  it  was  but  a 
single  gate  (probably  that  which  is  now  known  as  Egn 
Kapoussi)  against  which  they  were  enabled  to  direct  their 
efforts.     The  position  chosen  for  their  camp  was  at  the 
north-western  angle,  between  the  palace  of  Blachernae  and 
the  castle  of  Boemond,  and  here  they  were  laboriously  em- 
ployed in   bringing  up  their   artillery,  constructing  their 
works,  and  planting  their  scorpions,  catapults,  mangonels, 
and  perricres.     Few  moments  could  be  snatched  for  repose, 
for  they  were  harassed  by  perpetual  sallies,  and  they  could 
not  eat,  nor  rest,  nor  sleep,  except  in  arms.     The  attacks 
were  renewed  six  or  seven  times  each  day  ;  and  many  ot 
them,  headed  by  Theodore  Lascaris,  a  son-in-hiw  of  the 
emperor,  who  was  destined  to  great  subsequent  distinction, 
occasioned  severe  loss.     Often,  however,  did  they  chase 
back  the  Greeks  under  their  very  walls,  till  they  were  them- 
selves forced  to  retreat  from  the  volleys  of  stones  hurled 
upon  them  bv  the  garrison.     The  more  effectually  to  secure 
their  camp,  they  fortified  it  with  stout  barriers  and  pali- 
sades.    But  an  enemv,  carrying  greater  terror  than  the 
swords  of  the  Greeks,  threatened  to  commence  its  inroads, 
and  their  situation  increased  in  peril  every  hour.     They 
dared  not  forage  beyond  four  bowshots  from  their  tents, 
and  even  then  only  in  large  parties.     Their  fresh  provisions 
having  been  exhausted,  they  had  recourse  to  their  horses, 
and  when  these  had  been  killed,  and  this  resource  lailed 
also,  a  little  meal  and  a  little  salted  meat  now  constituted 
their  whole  store.     Their  supplies  even  of  this  kind,  at  the 
commencement  of  this  most  extraordinary  siege,  had  not 
been  calculated  for  more  than  three  weeks'  consumption. 

Ten  days  out  of  that  period  had  passed  away  ;  and  their 
greatest  hazard  was  exposure  to  further  delay.  Their 
preparations  were  completed  on  the  land  side,  and  tlie  \  ene- 
tians  were  equally  ready  in  the  harbour ;  so  that,  on  the 
momin.T  of  the  17th  of  July,  four  of  the  six  divisions  ad- 
vanced from  the  camp,  headed  by  the  Count  of  Flanders  and 
his  brother,  the  Counts  of  Blois  and  of  St.  Paul,  whde  the 
reserve  of  Champagners  and  Burgundians,  under  the  Mar- 
most  part  vague  and  unsatisfactory.  Villehardouin  certainly  implies  that 
there  were  at  lea>t  60  i,0()0  men  in  Constantinople  capable  of  beanng 
arms.  The  Franks  after  their  desertions  and  losses  could  scarcely  ex- 
ceed 20,000. 


quis  of  Montferrat  and  Matthew  de   Montmorency,  kept 
guard  over  the  camp.     Much  injury  had  already  been  suf- 
fered by  the  outer  wall,  against  which  the  united  force  of 
not  less   than  two  hundred  and  fifty  engines   had  been 
directed  ;  and  the  ponderous  stones  which  they  were  con- 
structed to  hurl  had  in  many  instances  reached  and  de- 
stroyed parts  of  the  splendid  architecture  within  the  city 
itself.     Two  ladders  were   successfully  raised   against   a 
barbican,  defended  chiefly  by  a  band  of  Pisans,  whom  hatred 
of  Venice  had  attached  to  the  emperor,  and  by  a  ruder  and 
yet   more    formidable    battalion,    celebrated    in    Byzantine 
history  as  Varaugi,  and  called  by  Villehardouin  Danes  and 
English.     They  were,  probably,  the  descendants  of  Saxons 
or  of  Anglo-Danes,  who  had  fled  from  England  nearly  a 
century  and  a  half  before,  to  escape  the  tyranny  consequent 
upon  the  Norman  conquest,  and  who,  having  tendered  their 
services  to  the  first  Alexius,  and  given  ample  proofs  of  their 
strength  and  valour,  were  formed  into  an  imperial  body- 
guard as  early  as  the  year  1081.     Their  weapon  was  a  pon- 
derous battle-axe,  a  more  than  equal  match  for  even  the 
double-handed  sword  of  the  crusaders  ;  yet  in  spite  of  these 
barbarians,  for  such  they  were  not  unjustly  considered,  a 
gallant  handful  of  fifteen  warriors,  all,  except  two  of  them, 
knights,  gained  the  summit  of  the  wall ;  but  before  they 
could  be   supported,  the  defenders  rallied  and  drove  them 
back.     Two,  says  Villehardouin,  remained  prisoners,  and 
were   carried  before  the  emperor  Alexius,  to  his  singular 
gratification.     He  had  not  participated  in  the  combat,  but 
looked  on  from  the  summit  of  a  lofty  tower.     Many  other  of 
the  assailants  were  grievously  hurt  or  wounded ;  and  the 
attack  having  entirely  fiiiled,  the  French  retired  to  their 
camp,  broken  and  dispirited. 

The  Venetians  had  been  far  more  successful.  In  their 
preparations  they  had  displayed  extraordinary  skill,  and 
exhausted  every  branch  of  military  art  then  known.  Their 
decks  were  crowded  with  warlike  engines,  and  protected 
from  the  eflects  of  fire  by  a  thick  covering  of  ox-hides  ;  and 
in  order  to  gain  the  ramparts,  they  had  framed  rope-ladders, 
which  could  be  let  down  at  will  from  the  extremities  of  the 
yard-arms,  and  which  from  their  great  heijiht  overtopped 
the  city  walls.  These  drawbridges,  as  they  neared  the 
«hore,  were  lowered,  and  poured  forth  swarms  of  com- 


100 


SUCCESS  OF  DANDOLO. 


SALLY  OF  THE  GREEKS. 


batants  upon  the  heads  of  the  astonished  garrison.  But 
their  triumph  must  be  told  in  the  dramatic  words  of  Ville- 
hardouin.  "  Their  vessels,  marshalled  in  a  line  which  ex- 
tended more  than  three  bowshots,  began  to  approach  the 
towers  and  the  wall  which  stretched  along  the  shore.  The 
mangonels  were  planted  upon  the  decks,  and  the  flights  of 
arrows  and  quarrels  were  numberless ;  yet  those  within  the 
city  valiantly  defended  their  posts.  The  ladders  on  the 
ships  approached  the  walls  so  closely,  that  in  many  places 
it  became  a  combat  of  sword  and  lance,  and  the  shouts  were 
so  great  that  they  were  enough  to  shake  sea  and  earth  ;  but 
the  galleys,  notwithstanding,  could  find  no  opportunity  of 
reaching  the  land.  Now  you  shall  hear  of  the  dauntless 
valour  of  the  Duke  of  Venice  ;  who,  old  and  blind  as  he 
was,  stood  upon  the  prow  of  his  galley,  with  the  standard 
of  St.  Mark  spread  before  him,  urging  his  people  to  push  on 
to  the  shore  on  peril  of  his  high  displeasure.  By  wondrous 
exertions  they  ran  the  galley  ashore,  and  leaping  out,  bore 
the  banner  of  St.  Mark  before  him  on  the  land.  When  the 
Venetians  saw  the  banner  of  St.  Mark  on  the  land,  and  that 
their  duke's  galley  had  been  the  first  to  touch  the  ground, 
they  pushed  on  in  shame  and  emulation ;  and  the  men  of 
the  palanders  sprang  to  land  in  rivalry  with  each  other,  and 
commenced  a  furious  assault.  And  I,  Geoftry  de  Villehar- 
douin.  Marshal  of  Champagne,  the  author  of  this  work, 
afl&rm,  that  it  was  asserted  by  more  than  forty  persons,  that 
they  beheld  the  banner  of  St.  Mark  planted  upon  one  of  the 
towers,  and  none  could  tell  by  what  hand  it  was  planted 
there  ;  at  which  miraculous  sight  the  besieged  fled  and  de- 
serted the  walls,  while  the  invaders  rushed  in  headlong, 
striving  who  should  be  foremost ;  seized  upon  twenty-five 
of  the  towers,  and  garrisoned  them  with  their  soldiers. 
And  the  duke  despatched  a  boat  with  the  news  of  his  suc- 
cess to  the  barons  of  the  army,  letting  them  know  that  he 
was  in  possession  of  twenty-five  towers,  and  in  no  danger 
of  being  dislodged." 

The  invisible  standard-bearer,  who  struck  terror  into  the 
besieged  and  animated  his  comrades,  was  probably  some 
gallant  soldier,  killed  (like  one  of  our  own  brave  country- 
men under  similar  circumstances  on  the  ramparts  of  Serin- 
gapatam)  in  the  very  moment  of  his  triumph.  The  Vene- 
tians, when  once  established,  with  characteristic  prudence 


101 


secured  their  booty  and  began  to  send  the  horses  and  pal- 
I  treys  which  they  had  captured  in  boats  to  the  camp ;  and 

/  while  they  were  thus  employed  a  fresh  body  of  Greeks  re- 

turned  to  the  charge.  In  order  to  maintain  their  ground, 
the  \enetians  set  hre  to  the  houses  between  themselves  and 
the  approaching  enemy,  against  whom  this  terrible  expe- 
dient  proved  an  insurmountable  barrier.* 

To  change  their  attack,  and  to  press  upon  that  portion  of 
the  besiegers  which  had  been  already  repulsed,  was  the  ob- 
vious pohcy  of  the  Greeks  ;  and  Alexius,  in  spile  of  his  un- 
warhke  temperament,  placed  himself  at  the  head  of  his 
myriads  and  directed  a  sally  from  three  gates  at  once,  in  the 
hope  of  overwhelming  the  camp.     Each  of  the  sixty  bat- 
tahons  which  the  Greeks  brought  into  the  field  outnumbered 
any  of  the  six  opposed  to  it ;  and  the  whole  plain  seemed 
ahve  with  armed  men,  who  advanced  slowly  and  in  good 
order.     Had  the  crusaders  moved  forward,  thev  must  have 
been  surrounded  and  swept  away  ;  but  forming  before  their 
palisades,  which  eflectually  guarded  their  rear,  they  placed 
their  line  so  that  its  flanks  also  were  protected.     The  cross- 
bowmen  and  archers  ranged  in  front,  the  horses  formed  the 
second  line,  and  behind  these  were  drawn  up  the  infantry. 
Two  hundred  knights,  whose  horses  had  been  slauahtered 
either  for  food  or  m  battle,  served  that  day  on  fool ;  and 
thus  arrayed  they  awaited  their  enemies,  already  within  bow- 
shot.     At  that  fearful  crisis  intelligence  of  the  peril  of  his 
friends  was  conveyed  to  Dandolo,  and  the  noble-minded 
veteran  lost  not  a  moment  in  abandoning  the  towers  which 
he  had  so  hardly  won,  and  in  hastening  to  share  the  fate  of 
his  brethren  m  arms.     Declaring  that  he  would  live  or  die 
with  the  pilgrims,  and  himself  descending  the  first  from  the 
walls,  he  rushed  to  the  camp,  bearing  with  him  every  hand 
that  could  be  spared  from  his  fleet.     Little,  however,  would 
this  slender  reinforcement  have  availed,  if  the  courage  of 
Alexius  had  equalled  his  overwhelming  force.     Whatever 
might  have  been  his  own  loss  (for  there  is  no  doubt  that  the 
Franks  would  have  sold  their  lives  most  dearly),  the  total 
destruction  ot  his  enemies  must  have  been  the  result  of 

«t,r  ^'^T''^''  ^^'^i^s  Ihat  tlie  Greeks  and  Franks  muiually  accused  each 
other  of  beinsr  authors  of  this  fire     Doth  \irpta*  ^mH  vm?K„   i  ■ 

tivelv  atinhiitP  it  tn  th.>  v„V  V  ""''' ->icetas  and  ViHehardoum  pos - 
uyeiy  atirioute  it  to  the  Venetians,  in  whom  it  is  plain  the  last-nim/'d 
author  considers  it  to  have  been  a  piece  of  excellent  geniralLiS. 


102 


RESTORATION  OF  ISAAC  ANGELUS. 


repeated  charges  ;  and  these  were  urged  upon  him  by  the 
ardour  of  Lascaris.  Yet  for  a  long  time  the  opposed  lines 
gazed  on  each  other  without  a  movement ;  the  Greeks  too 
timorous  to  advance,  the  pilgrims  too  prudent  to  quit  their 
barricades.  At  length  the  emperor,  despairing  of  success,  or 
apprehensive  of  disaster,  gave  the  signal  for  retreat ;  and 
his  steps  were  followed  slowly  and  cautiously  by  the  Latin 
knights,  astonished  at  this  unexpected  good  fortune.  "  And 
indeed,"  says  the  honest  Villehardouin, "  God  never  delivered 
people  from  more  imminent  peril  than  that  which  this  day 
threatened  the  pilgrims,  the  boldest  of  whom  rejoiced  when 
it  was  passed."  Worn  with  toil  and  fatigue,  they  put  off 
their  armour ;  but  their  quarters  were  dreary  and  comfort- 
less, they  were  straitened  for  provisions,  and  the  danger 
which  they  had  just  escaped  must  again  be  confronted  on 
the  morrow.  The  Venetians,  indeed,  might  console  them- 
selves with  their  glory.  They  had  displayed  the  most  emi- 
nent of  all  military  virtues, — courage,  promptitude,  fidelity ; 
and,  with  a  result  which  does  not  always  accompany  merit, 
they  had  not  only  deserved  success,  but  they  had  also 
attained  it. 

"  But  behold,"  exclaims  the  pious  chronicler,  •*  the  mira- 
cles of  our  Lord  !  who  displays  them  according  to  his  plea- 
sure." Strange  rumours  from  the  city  broke  the  night- 
watches  of  the  camp,  and  intelligence  the  most  joyous  and 
the  most  unlooked-for  was  confirmed  at  dawn.  Stragglers 
arrived,  from  time  to  time,  all  agreeing  in  the  same  story, 
that  the  usurper,  terrified  by  the  firmness  of  the  besiegers, 
and,  perhaps,  also  by  the  murmurs  of  his  own  citizens,  had 
collected  during  the  night  such  portable  treasure  as  he 
could  secure,  a  vast  sum  in  gold,  and  the  rich  jewels  of  the 
crown ;  and,  with  his  daughter  Irene  and  a  few  followers 
whom  he  could  trust,  had  hastily  embarked  and  fled  to 
Debeltos  (Zagora),  an  obscure  village  in  Bulgaria.  The 
fear  of  general  anarchy,  so  likely  to  be  consequent  upon 
this  desertion  of  the  throne,  strongly  impressed  Constan- 
tine,  the  chief  eunuch  of  the  palace,  to  whom  this  shameful 
abandonment  was  earliest  known.  It  was  necessary  to  find 
some  head  of  the  state ;  and  none  appeared  so  fit,  either  to 
calm  intestine  discord  or  to  conciliate  the  enemy  under  the 
walls,  as  the  rightful  but  deposed  prince.  Isaac  Angelus 
was  awakened,  at  midnight,  in  his  dungeon  ;  and,  in  the 


RATIFICATION  OF  THE  TREATY. 


103 


messengers  of  his  restoration  to  sovereignly,  the  sightless 
old  man  most  probably  anticipated,  though  falsely,  the  min- 
isters of  a  bloody  execution.  After  eight  years'  captivity, 
he  was  again  invested  with  the  imperial  robes ;  led  by  the 
hand*  (how  touchingly  does  the  single  word  used  by  Nicetas 
imply  his  helplessness  !)  to  the  pilace  of  Blachernse,  seated 
on  his  former  throne,  and  deafened  afresh  with  protestations 
of  allegiance.  The  barons  and  the  young  Alexius  were 
overjoyed  at  this  wondrous  intelligence  ;  so  wondrous  as 
at  first  to  exceed  belief.  The  Greeks,  proverbially,  were 
little  to  be  trusted,  and  caution  was  requisite  in  accepting 
their  first  report.  The  chiefs,  therefore,  aw&ited  its  con- 
firmation in  the  camp  and  under  arms,  till  at  length,  when 
an  exchange  of  couriers  had  removed  all  doubt,  they  gave 
way  to  their  intense  feelings  of  delight.  Thanks  were  de- 
voutly rendered  by  all  to  Heaven  ;  and  never,  says  the  brave 
and  sincere  Marshal  of  Champagne,  was  greater  joy  mani- 
fested since  the  creation. 

Their  first  step  was  to  depute  an  embassy  to  the  restored 
emperor,  requiring  his  confirmation  of  the  treaties  entered 
into  by  his  son,  whom,  till  this  agreement  was  ratified,  they 
detained  as  a  hostage.  Matthew  de  Montmorency,  Ville- 
hardouin, and  two  Venetian  knights  were  commissioned 
for  this  service.  The  ambassadors,  being  conducted  to  the 
walls,  alighted  from  their  horses,  and  found  the  Danes  and 
the  English,  with  their  axes,  ranged  from  the  gate  to  the 
palace  of  Blachern.'E.  There  they  beheld  the  emperor 
Isaac,  attired  in  such  splendour  as  to  dazzle  their  imagina- 
tion ;  the  empress,  a  most  fair  lady,  the  daughter  of  the 
King  of  Hungary,  sat  beside  him  ;  and  there  were  such 
crowds  of  high  lords  and  noble  dames,  clothed  in  magnificent 
vesture,  that  there  was  scarcely  room  to  pass  ;  for  all  those 
who  yesterday  were  the  emperor's  enemies,  were  now  become 
the  most  submissive  of  his  friends. 

They  were  received  with  courtesy,  and  admitted  to  a  pri- 
vate audience.  In  this  conference  Villehardouin,  who  was 
spokesman,  urged  the  ratification  of  the  treaty,  at  the  es- 
pecial suit  of  the  young  prince  who  had  entered  into  it. 
"  W^hat  are  the  terms  ]"  inquired  the  emperor ;  and  he  heard, 
for  the  ^st  time,  of  spiritual  submission  to  the  Roman  see, 


•'  Itw*.   ^  VI  *^        > 


jsiSt3u»tM»e^xSsaiSiiHatMk%i^7i,<tiM 


104 


EMBARRASSMENT  OF  THE  GREEKS. 


and  the  payment  of  200,000  marks.  "  This  covenant,"  he 
replied,  "  is  of  no  trifling  importance,  nor  do  I  see  how  we 
shall  be  able  to  fultil  it.  But  you  have  so  well  deserved  both 
of  him  and  me,  that  if  we  were  to  give  you  the  whole  em- 
pire, it  would  not  exceed  your  merits."  This  said,  he  for- 
mally assented  to  the  treaty,  and  appended  to  it  the  golden 
seal  of  the  empire.  On  the  notification  of  this  event  in  the 
camp,  the  barons  conducted  the  young  Alexius,  with  much 
pomp,  into  Constantinople,  where  the  light  populace  received 
their  banished  prince  and  their  foeman  of  yesterday  with 
loud  testimonies  of  joy.  The  emperor  possessed  too  accu- 
rate acquaintance  with  the  fickle  disposition  of  his  country- 
men to  confide  in  these  outward  signs  of  amity  ;  and  as  a 
•wise  precaution,  he  earnestly  implored  the  barons,  and 
even  his  son,  to  shift  their  present  quarters  and  to  reoccupy 
Stenon  ;  thus  interposing  the  bay  between  their  troops  and 
the  citizens ;  and  by  lessening  their  opportunities  of  com- 
munication, at  the  same  time  diminishing  the  chances  of 
quarrel. 

The  coronation  of  the  joint  emperors  (for  Alexius  became 
associated  with  his  father)  was  celebrated  on  the  1st  of 
August ;  and  as  soon  as  this  day  of  pageantry  (the  ceremo- 
nials of  which  are  minutely  described  by  Ramusio*)  had 
closed,  they  sought  means  of  discharging  their  heavy  debt 
to  the  Latins.     The  imperial  treasury,  well  nigh  exhausted 
by  the  profuse  luxuries  of  the  late  usurper  in  the  first  in- 
stance, and  afterward  by  his  plunder,  in  the  moment  of 
flight,  could  afford  but  a  scanty  pittance  towards  the  fearful 
amount  of  200,000  marks.     But  the  property  of  such  as 
were  known  to  have  supported  the  fallen  Alexius  was  con- 
fiscated;   his  empress  Euphrosyne,  whom  he  had   aban- 
doned, was  stripped  of  her  jewels  ;  the  plate  and  conse- 
crated vessels  of  the  churches  were  melted  down,  and  the 
holy  images  despoiled  of  their  ornaments.     A  first  instal- 
ment was  thus  raised  amid  the  curses  of  the  people  from 
whom  it  was  torn  ;  and  the  barons,  on  receiving  it,  faith- 
fully restored  to  each  of  their  followers  the  sum  advanced 
by  him  at  Venice  for  his  passage.     Other  causes,  besides 
fi  "^*^^6"shment,  contributed  to  inflame  the  animosity 
Of  the  Greeks  against  the  strangers,  and  to  weaken  what- 

*  Lib.  ii.  p.  92,  &c. 


FOLLIES  OF  ALEXIUS. 


105 


I 


«ver  attachment  they  might  feel  for  the  restored  emperors. 
The  princes  lived  in  disunion.     Troops  of  knavish  astrolo- 
gers found  encouragement  from  the  imbecility  of  Isaac  An- 
gelus,  and  his  palace  was  thronged  with  fiiwning  and  para- 
sitical monks,  "  a  long-bearded  and  God-hated  train,"  for 
whom  Nicetas,  who  so  styles  them,  expresses  yet  greater 
abhorrence  than  for  the  pretenders  to  divination.     By  these 
joint  impostors  the  doting  fancy  of  the  impotent  old  man 
was  amused  with  predictions  of  renovated  bodily  vigour  and 
-extended  political  dominion.     He  believed  that  he  was  to 
become   repossessed  of  sight,  to  cast  oflT  his  other  infirmi- 
ties, as  the  snake  disencumbers  himself  from  his  slough,  and 
to  arise  in  rejuvenescence,  more  like  a  god  than  a  man. 
The  sceptres  of  both  empires  were  to  be  grasped  by  his 
single  hand,  and  in  his  person  was  to  be  displayed  the  mag- 
nificence of  universal  sovereignty.    From  some  absurd  belief 
in  the  potency  of  talismans,  he  removed  from  the  hippo- 
drome to  his  palace  an  image  of  the  Caledonian  boar,  the 
presence  of  which  near  his  person  he  fancied  to  be  a  sure 
preventive  of   sedition.      The  populace,   more  pardonable 
for  their  superstition,   about  the  same  time,  destroyed  a 
colossal  statue  of  Minerva,  whose  arm,  extending  towards 
the  west,  was   supposed  to  have   beckoned   the  invaders. 
Inflated  by  his  idle  hopes,  Isaac  Angelus  could  ill  brook  the 
partner  with  whom,  in  the  first  moments  of  liberty,  he  had 
consented  to  share  his  throne ;  and  in  the  ambition  or  the 
thoughtlessness  of  his  son  he  hourly  discovered  countless 
objects  of  jealousy.     The  Greeks  also  found  in  him  no  less 
obvious  defects.     Of  his  person  Nicetas  speaks  with  bitter 
contempt ;  likening  his  face,  perhaps  red  and  swollen  with 
intemperance,  to  that  of  some  fire-breathing  spirit,  or  "  the 
incendiary  angel."     The  manners  of  the  Latins  were  alien 
from  those  of  Constantinople  ;  and  the  young  prince,  owing 
to  his  long  intercourse  with  foreigners,  adopted  customs  and 
permitted  freedoms  which  his  severer  countrymen  regarded, 
perhaps  not  unjustly,  as  degrading  the  majesty  of  the  purple. 
They  mourned  to  see  the  representative  of  the  Cesars  sur- 
rounded by  loose  associates,  whom  he  raised  to  his  own 
level,  or  rather  to  whose  baseness  he  descended,  by  par- 
taking their  games  of  chance  and  boisterous  revelry.     And 
when,  in  an  unseemly  frolic,  one  of  his  boon  companions 
snatched  the  golden  diadem  from  the  imperial  head,  and 


106   FRESH  PROPOSALS  TO  THE  CRUSADERS. 

exchanged  it  for  the  coarse  woollen  cap  by  which  his  own 
was  covered,  they  may  be  forgiven  if  they  considered  the 
latter  as  most  lit  to  circle  the  brows  of  their  unprincely 
sovereign. 

So  evident  were  their  feelings  of  discontent,  that  Alexius 
contemplated  with  dismay  the  approaching  departure  of 
those  to  whom  he  not  only  owed  the  possession  of  his 
crown,  but  upon  whose  continued  presence  he  chiefly  rehed 
for  maintaining  it ;  and  in  order  to  secure  this  object,  he 
commenced  a  fresh  negotiation.  Not  concealing  that  he 
was  so  bitterly  hated  that  if  they  quitted  him  he  should 
perhaps  lose  both  his  empire  and  his  life,  he  proposed  that 
their  stay  should  be  prolonged  till  the  following  March. 
For  this  extension  of  service  he  promised  to  pay  the  whole 
subsidy  now  due  to  the  Venetians,  and  to  continue  the 
association  for  another  year  by  a  new  grant.  All  supplies 
needed  for  the  army  should  be  furnished  by  him  while  they 
remained  ;  his  revenues  during  that  period  would  enable 
him  to  discharge  his  whole  debt ;  his  navy  would  be  equipped 
and  his  army  recruited,  to  accompany  them  to  the  Holy 
Land  ;  and,  instead  of  a  winter's  voyage,  they  would  have 
the  entire  summer  before  them  for  their  campaign. 

To  accede  to  this  proposal  was  to  postpone  yet  longer  the 
original  and  avowed  object  of  the  Christian  armament, 
whose  proceedings  had  been  hitherto  no  more  than  episodes 
to  the  great  action  for  which  it  had  been  associated.  The 
holy  see  would  assuredly  condemn  the  delay,  and  yet, 
since  their  late  success,  even  the  Venetians  had  sought  and 
gained  its  spiritual  favour.  Without  humiliation,  with 
scarcely  an  acknowledgment  of  disobedience,  and  certainly 
without  any  atonement  for  it,  they  had  asked  absolution, 
and  had  received  it.*  The  reply  of  the  legate  whom  they 
addressed  sufficiently  shows  the  straits  to  which  his  court 
was  reduced  by  the  unbending  indifference  of  this  haughty 
republic  :  "  I  absolve  you,"  he  wrote,  "  though  you  have  in 
nowise  tendered  satisfaction  for  your  sin;  for  it  is  better 
that  I  should  retain  you  lame  and  halt,  than  lose  you  as 
altogether  dead  ;  and  your  leprosy,  if  permitted  to  continue, 
may  grow  contagious,  and  infect  others."  In  spite  of  this 
ungracious  pardon,  Dandolo,  whose  sagacity  foresaw,  in  a 

♦  Gesta.  Innocentii  iii  91,  apud  Muratori,  iii. 


FIRE  IN  CONSTANTINOPLE. 


107 


I 


prolonged  connexion  with  Constantinople,  much  chance  of 
increasing  the  commercial  prosperity  of  his  country,  and  of 
consolidating  establishments  now  in  their  infancy,  but  little 
hesitated  once  again  to  incur  the  papal  displeasure ;  and 
chiefly  through  the  Venetian  influence  in  the  council,  the 
terms  of  Alexius  were  accepted.  The  doge  received  his 
price  by  payment  of  the  freight  of  his  vessels ;  and  the 
spirit  of  traffic  spreading  through  the  camp,  the  Marquis 
of  Montferrat  engaged  to  accompany  the  young  emperor, 
with  a  great  band  of  men-at-arms,  in  order  to  subdue  the 
Thracian  provinces  which  still  opposed  his  succession  : 
1600  pounds  of  gold  purchased  this  assistance,  and  it  was 
not  dearly  bought ;  for,  wherever  the  confederates  appeared, 
the  Greeks  thronged  to  proffer  their  allegiance. 

During  the  absence  of  this  expedition,  the  jealousy  be- 
tween the  Greeks  and  Latins  was  bitterly  exasperated  by 
the  occurrence  of  a  horrible  calamity.     Villehardouin,  either 
ignorant  of  its  real  cause  or  willing  to  conceal  the  violence 
of  his  comrades,  states  that  an  affray  arose  between  the 
Franks  and  the  citizens,  and  that,  during  their  quarrel,  a 
fire  was  occasioned  by  unknown  persons.     Nicetas  is  more 
particular,  and  he  speaks  of  a  troop  of  Flemings,  Pisans, 
and  Venetians,  which  assaulted  and  plundered  a  place  of 
worship,  named  Mitatus,  belonging  to  the  Saracens.     The 
owners  defended  it,  and  were  assisted  by  the  Greeks ;  and 
in  revenge  the  rioters  fired  some  adjoining  houses.     Be  the 
truth  as  it  may,  and  there  is  no  improbability  in  the  account 
given  by  Nicetas,  neither  by  him  nor  by  Villehardouin  is 
any  authority  afforded  for  the  misplaced  sneer  with  which 
Gibbon  has  related  the  transaction.     The  fires  in  Constan- 
tinople, from  its  foundation  to  the  present  hour,  have  far 
exceeded  in  devastation  and  extent  those  occurring  in  any 
other  great  city  ;  but  all,  says  Nicetas,  that  ever  happened 
were  as  nothing  in  comparison  with  this.     No  power  of 
man   could   extinguish   or   even   check  it.      The   barons, 
encamped  on  the  opposite  side  of  the  port,  watched  the 
progress  of  the  wide-spreading  blaze  with  alarm  and  trouble ; 
palaces  and  churches  sank  in  ashes  to  the  ground,  and 
whole  streets,  piled  with  the  costliest  merchandise,  fell  a 
prey  to  the  insatiate  greediness  of  the  flames.     From  the 
harbour  they  stretched,  through  the  most  crowded  districts 
of  the  city,  across  the  entire  peninsula  to  the  very  opposite 


j^^smJrnmwtw* 


108 


MURMURS  OF  THE  GREEKS. 


sea.  The  stately  domes  of  Sta.  Sophia  were  enJangereJ, 
and  during  eight  days  the  raging  of  the  fierce  element 
baffled  all  human  efforts,  presenting  a  front  of  fire  which 
extended  more  than  three  miles  in  length.  The  loss  of 
property  and  of  lives  forbade  all  estimate  ;  and  in  order  to 
escape  both  from  the  conflagration  and  the  fury  of  the  suf- 
ferers, who,  whether  justly  or  otherwise,  fixed  upon  the 
Latins  as  the  authors  of  their  misfortune,  fifteen  thousand 
settlers,  the  descendants  of  families  who  had  domiciled  in 
Constantinople  and  had  enjoyed  great  privileges  ever  since 
the  reign  of  Manuel,  abandoned  their  dwellings,  crossed 
the  Golden  Horn,  and  threw  themselves  on  the  protection 
of  the  pilgrims.  Among  these  were  numerous  Pisans,  who, 
in  this  necessity,  forgot  their  national  jealousy  against 
Venice.  From  that  hour,  mutual  suspicion  was  aroused 
between  the  Greeks  and  Latins  ;  confidence  was  at  an  end, 
and  the  equalizing  commercial  arrangements  which  had 
placed  both  nations  on  a  par  where  wholly  destroyed. 

Alexius  returned  from  his  successful  campaign  in  No- 
vember, apparently  more  to  the  joy  of  his  allies  than  of  his 
subjects.  Nevertheless,  towards  the  former  his  relations 
had  undergone  material  change.  The  murmurs  of  the 
Greeks  were  loud,  for  severe  exactions  to  glut  the  rapacity 
of  ambiguous  friends  had  reduced  them  to  poverty  ;  their 
city  had  been  fired  by  barbarians  ;  and,  above  all,  their 
feelings  had  been  wounded  in  the  tcnderest  point,  by  a  vio- 
lation of  their  religion.  The  walls  of  Sta.  Sophia  had 
been  profaned  by  a  declaration  of  the  supremacy  of  a  foreign 
priest,  and  their  native  patriarch  had  been  compelled  to 
announce  from  the  depth  of  his  own  sanctuary  that  the 
head  of  that  abomination,  the  Western  heresy,  was  the 
legitimate  successor  of  St.  Peter.  On  the  other  hand,  the 
barons  complained,  no  less  impatiently,  of  the  tardy  ftilfil- 
ment  of  the  brilliant  promises  which  had  induced  their  stay  ; 
and  they  were  ill  inclined  to  make  allowances  for  the  dis- 
tress, created  in  great  part  by  themselves,  which  rendered 
their  payments  irregular  and  deficient.  Upon  the  motive* 
which  guided  the  conduct  of  Alexius  it  is  impossible  to 
decide,  but  they  were  probably  of  a  mixed  nature.  Even 
if  his  wishes  inclined  towards  his  benefactors,  the  very 
inability  which  he  felt  to  discharge  his  debt  of  gratitude 
might  awaken  shame  ;  and  he  might,  under  this  conscious- 


f 


i 


COLDNESS  OF  ALEXIUS. 


109 


ness,  be  unwilUng  for  the  present  to  renew  his  hitherto 
familiar  intercourse.     Or,  again,  a  belief  that  his  power  had 
struck  deep  root,  and  that  he  no  longer  nee<led  the  support 
on  which  he  had  heretofore  leaned,  might  prompt  him  to 
throw  aside  that  assistance  which  now,  in  his  confirmed 
strength,  he  regarded  but  as  an  encumbrance.    To  strengthen 
these  suggestions,  the  insidious  counsels  of  a  favourite  and 
a  kinsman  were  not  wanting;  and  he  who  most  loudly 
denounced  the  Franks  was  one  who  well  knew  how  to  reap 
profit  from  the  quarrel,  if  he  could  but  excite  it.     This  false 
friend  was  Alexius  Angelus  Ducas,  better  known  in  history 
by  the  sobriquet  Mourtzouphlus,*  denoting  the  black  and 
shaggy  eyebrows  which  met  each  other  on  his  forehead. 
He  IS  beheved  to  have  been  second  cousin  to  the  emperor, 
and  this  connexion  with  the  imperial  blood,  joined  to  his 
high  dignity  of  prutavestiare,  afforded  ample  opportunities, 
which  he  was  far  too  politic  to  neglect,  of  poisoning  the  ears 
of  his  sovereigns.     Whether  from  necessity  or  compulsion, 
from  imbecility  or  ingratitude,  Alexius  became  cold,  distant, 
and  reserved  to  his  former  intimates.     His  visits  to  the  camp 
were  brief  and  unfrequent ;  his  payments,  at  first  wruna 
from  him  with  difficulty  and  inadequate  to  the  demands  of 
his  creditors,  in  the  end  wholly  ceased.     To  the  remon- 
strances of  the  Marquis  of  Montferrat,  who  still  retained 
near  access  to  his  person,  he  exhibited  inattention  or  impa- 
tience.    The  theme,  indeed,  could  be  little  grateful ;  and 
upbraidings  for  wrongs  which  he  wanted  ability  to  redress, 
memorials  of  unrequited  services,  and  reproaches  for  pitiful 
evasions  of  plighted  faith,  were  subjects  as  novel  as  thoy 
were  unvyelcome  in  the  audience-chamber  of  a  despot  of 
Constantinople.     The   unhappy  youth  was   beset   on  all 
hands  with  difficulties  ;  and  they  were  of  intricacy  sufficient 
to  entangle,  and  of  weight  calculated  to  overwhehn,  even  a 
firmer  and  more  veteran  politician. 

The  crusaders  were  not  of  a  temper  to  be  thus  idly 
amused.  The  doge  and  barons  met  in  council ;  and  the 
result  of  their  deliberations  aflbrds  one  of  the  most  strildnrr 

O 

•  It  is  not  easy  to  u  aravel  the  etymology  of  the  name  of  Mourtzouphlus. 
We  have  followed  Nicetas,  ds  h  rov  awcaraiT^ai  rdg  d(l>pvs,  Kai  o}op  r<.?f 
6^&aAuoig  fmKpfuna^at,  ttoo?  twv  (niv£(pn(iiav  cnu)v6^a<^o  M/Jpriow^Aws. 
Ihe  transition  trom  this  reafion  to  the  name  it«jelf  is  an  intricate  one ; 
but  that  which  we  find  in  Gtmthcr  is  yet  more  so,  qui  Murtiphlo,  id  est 
floH  cordis,  m  gente  ilia  vocal/at ur.    {Hiat.  Constant,  n.  8.) 

Vol.  I. — K 


iM&s^&ai'i 


"SJST' 


110  BOLD  REMONSTRANCE  OF  THE  CRUSADERS. 


incidents  in  this  history  of  wonders.  They  resolved,  that 
the  emperor,  as  lie  would  not  fulfil  his  covenant,  was  there- 
fore unworthy  of  behef ;  that,  as  a  last  hope  of  reclaiming 
him,  they  would  depute  sufficient  ambassadors  to  require 
the  execution  of  the  treaty,  and  to  remind  him  of  the  service 
which  they  had  performed  ;  that  if  he  intended  to  act  justly, 
it  were  well ;  if  not,  that  they  should  defy  him  in  the  name 
of  all.  Upon  this  most  perilous  and  daring  enterprise  (as 
indeed  upon  all  others  of  similar  character),  this  bearding 
of  the  emperor  in  his  own  palace,  Villehardouin  was  per- 
sonally employed ;  and  the  extraordinary  scene  which  he 
witnessed  would  be  robbed  of  its  deep  interest  if  paraphrased 
from  his  own  simple  and  energetic  relation.  "  Conon  de 
Bethune,  Geoffrey  de  Villehardouin  the  Marshal  of  Cham- 
pagne, and  Miles  de  Brabant  were  chosen  ambassadors ; 
and  the  Duke  of  Venice  deputed  three  of  his  chief  coun- 
sellors. These  nobles,  having  mounted  their  horses,  their 
swords  girt  on,  rode  together  to  the  palace  of  Blachernse ; 
though,  from  the  habitual  treachery  of  the  Greeks,  it  was 
no  trifling  danger  they  encountered.  Having  alighted  at 
the  gate  and  entered  the  palace,  they  found  the  emperor 
Alexius  and  his  father  the  emperor  Isaac  seated  together 
on  two  thrones.  Near  them  was  the  empress,  the  sister  of 
the  King  of  Hungary  and  mother-in-law  of  Alexius,  a  goodly 
and  virtuous  lady.  Numbers  of  powerful  lords  were  pres- 
ent, and  the  court  shone  with  more  than  the  usual  lustre. 
By  desire  of  the  other  ambassadors,  the  wise  and  eloquent 
Conon  de  Bethune  spoke  first :  *  Sir,'  said  he,  *  v^^e  are 
deputed  to  you  by  the  Duke  of  Venice  and  by  the  barons  of 
the  host,  to  remind  you  of  what  they  have  done  for  you, 
which,  indeed,  is  sufficiently  apparent  to  all  mankind.  You 
and  your  father  have  sworn  to  perform  faithfully  the 
covenant  which  you  had  made  with  them ;  your  letters- 
patent  to  that  purpose  are  in  their  possession  ;  but,  though 
you  have  often  been  called  upon,  you  have  not  fulfilled  that 
treaty  as  you  were  bound  to  do ;  and  we  again  summon 
you,  in  the  presence  of  your  lords,  to  perform  all  that  is 
stipulated  between  you  and  them.  If  you  do  so,  all  may 
be  well !  if  you  refuse,  know,  that  from  this  hour  they 
renounce  you  both  as  their  lord  and  friend,  and  will  pursue 
you  to  utter  extremity.  But  they  would  have  you  to  know 
that  treason  is  not  their  practice,  nor  the  fashion  of  their 


HOSTILITIES  COMMENCED. 


Ill 


country,  nor  do  tliey  make  war  upon  you  or  nny  one  with- 
out first  sending  an  open  defiance.  This  is  our  errand ; 
you  must  decide  according  to  your  pleasure.'  The  Greeks 
were  exceedingly  surprised  and  incensed  at  this  defiance, 
saying,  that  none  before  had  dared  to  defy  the  Emperor  of 
Constantinople  in  his  own  palace.  Alexius  also  teslified 
the  utmost  displeasure  at  the  ambassadors,  as  did  all  the 
Greek  lords,  who  had  fonncrly  been  their  friends.  The 
tumult  within  was  very  great,  but  the  ambassadors,  turning 
round,  reached  the  gate  and  immediately  mounted  their 
horses.  As  soon  as  they  were  beyond  the  gate,  they  con- 
gratulated themselves  upon  their  extraordinary  escape  ;  for 
it  was  a  mercy  that  they  were  not  murdered  or  imprisoned. 
On  their  return  to  the  camp,  they  related  how  they  had  sped 
to  the  barons." 

The  commencement  of  hostilities  was  immediate,  and  a 
war  of  unintermitted  skirmishes  ensued,  in  which  the 
Franks  were  for  the  most  part  successful.  Midwinter 
arrived  without  any  decisive  advantage  on  either  side,  when 
a  bold  attempt  of  the  Greeks  nearly  entailed  the  most 
frightful  consequences  upon  their  enemies.  The  Venetian 
fleet,  at  anchor  in  the  port,  was  alarmed  one  midnight  by 
the  appearance  of  huge  floating  masses  of  fire,  which 
covered  the  whole  breadth  of  the  gulf,  and  rapidly  ap- 
proached their  station.  The  troops  ran  to  arms,  and  the 
ships  were  speedily  manned  from  shore.  Meantime,  the 
cause  of  alarm  was  ascertained,  and  it  was  seen  that 
seventeen  large  hulks,  filled  with  combustibles,  had  been 
fired  by  the  Greeks,  and  left  to  drift  upon  the  hostile  arma- 
ment by  a  favourable  wind.  But  for  the  courage  and  skill 
of  the  Venetians,  all  had  been  lost ;  the  fleet  would  have 
been  destroyed,  and  the  army,  unable  to  disengage  itself, 
either  by  sea  or  land,  must  have  perished,  slowly  and 
miserably.  Leaping  into  their  boats,  or,  as  Ramusio  has 
stated,  probably  with  a  little  exaggeration,  into  the  blazing 
vessels  themselves,  the  intrepid  mariners  grappled  the  fire- 
ships  with  long  hooks ;  dragged  them  out  of  the  port,  in 
defiance  of  the  Greeks  who  manned  the  walls  on  the  southern 
shore  ;  and,  towing  them  into  the  main  current  of  the  Pro- 
pontis,  sent  them,  still  burning,  down  the  straits.  The 
ramp  continued  in  arms  during  the  remainder  of  the  night, 
but  no  further  attempt  was  made  to  disturb  its  repose,  and  the 


112  DETHRONEMENT  AND  DEATH  OF  THE  ANGELI. 

only  loss  sustained  from  this  great  peril  was  that  of  a  single 
Pisan  merchantman. 

Meantime,  Constantinople  was  a  prey  to  the  most  dia- 
^  ^  trading  anarchy.  The  unworthiness  of  the  reigning 
1204  P^"^^®  ^^^  been  sedulously  exposed  to  public  scorn 
and  hatred  by  the  intrigues  of  Mourtzouphlus,  whose 
own  valour,  a  quality  which  he  possessed  in  eminence,  had 
been  as  conspicuously  displayed  in  some  fortunate  encounters. 
His  designs  were  in  part  successful ;  little  skill  was  want- 
ing to  cast  the  tottering  Angeli  from  their  throne  ;  and  the 
chief  difficulty  was  to  substitute  himself  in  their  place. 
That  he  was  the  fomenter  of  a  conspiracy  by  which  the 
citizens  were  induced  to  surround  Sta.  Sophia,  and  to 
clamour  loudly  for  the  election  of  a  new  emperor,  seems 
beyond  dispute  ;  yet,  strange  as  it  may  appear,  in  the  divi- 
sions which  ensued,  and  among  the  numerous  persons  of 
»11  ranks  upon  whose  acceptance  the  crown  was  pressed, 
and  by  whom  it  was  rejected,  even  at  the  peril  of  their 
lives,  for  it  was  tendered  on  the  sword's  point,  his  name 
was  forgotten.  After  three  days'  suspense,  one  puppet  was 
raised  to  unsubstantial  sovereignty,  and  Nicolas  Canabus, 
having  been  saluted  emperor,  upon  compulsion,  prefaced  a 
life  of  imprisonment  by  a  few  hours  of  nominal  sway. 
Alexius,  alarmed  for  his  personal  safety,  commenced  a 
secret  negotiation  with  the  Latins,  in  which  he  agreed  to 
admit  their  troops  into  the  palace ;  and  having  intrusted 
this  design  to  Mourtzouphlus,  he  thus  opened  to  him  the 
path  long  coveted  by  his  ambition.  Mourtzouphlus  revealed 
the  secret  to  the  eunuch  Constantine  and  to  the  Varangian 
body-guard ;  and  having  shaken  their  fidelity  by  showing 
how  much  it  was  mistrusted  by  their  master,  he  burst  into 
the  chamber  of  Alexius  at  midnight,  and  awoke  him  with 
the  alarming  intelligence  of  a  design  of  immediate  assassi- 
nation. His  own  kinsmen  and  the  Varangi  were  announced 
as  the  insurgents ;  the  discovery  of  his  compact  with  the 
Latins  was  assigned  as  the  cause  of  their  fury.  A  secret 
door  opened  on  passages  which  promised  concealment ;  and 
the  affrighted  prince,  confiding  in  the  traitor  for  his  deliver- 
ance, after  traversing  the  remoter  apartments  of  his  palace 
to  an  obscure  pavilion,  was  hurried  in  fetters  to  a  dungeon. 
A  few  da-ys  closed  his  checkered  and  inglorious  life  ;  poison 
was  administered  more  than  once,  but  ineffectually,  and  his 


ENERGY  OF  MOURTZOUPHLUS. 


113 


miseries  were  terminated  by  the  bowstring.  No  violence 
was  requisite  to  bring  to  an  end  the  shattered  being  of  his 
blind  and  wretched  parent.  Grief,  terror,  and  infirmity 
prevented  the  necessity  of  another  deed  of  blood ;  and 
Isaac  Angelus  saiik  to  the  grave  shortly  after  his  second 
deposition. 

The  murder  of  Alexius  was  soon  known  in  the  camp, 
notwithstanding  the  efforts  of  Mourtzouphlus  to  conceal  it 
by  reports  of  his  natural  death,  by  splendid  obsequies,  and 
by  an  affectation  of  sorrow.     Yet,  before  the  news  of  the 
demise  of  this  prince  had  been  spread  abroad,  the  barons, 
but  for  the  precaution  of  Dandolo,  might  have  fallen  victims 
to  a  snare  spread  for  them  by  the  usurper.     They  were 
invited  to  the  city  in  the  name  of  Alexius,  under  the  promise 
of  a  final  adjustment  of  their  debt,  and  of  large  additional 
proofs  of  imperial  bounty ;  but  the  doge  suspected  the  arti- 
fice ;    and,  by  prevailing   upon  his  confederates   not  too 
hastily  to  accede  to  the  offer,  he  preserved  them  from  a 
treacherous  massacre.     On  discovery  of  the  events  which 
had  occurred,  the  crusaders  burned  with  resentment ;  and 
in  the  remembrance  that  the  deceased  prince  had  once  been 
their  friend  and  comrade,  they  forgot  his  more  recent  aliena- 
tion from  their  society  and  interests.     Their  eagerness  to 
avenge  his  death  was  stimulated  by  the  unanimous  voice  of 
the  ecclesiastics,  who  for  the  first  time  approved  the  war 
against  Constantinople.     They  pronounced  that  the  mur- 
derer was  incapacitated  from  succeeding  to  any  heritage ; 
and  that  all  who  were  privy  to  his  crime  were  alike  acces- 
saries and  heretics.     War  against  all  such  was  just  and 
lawful ;  and  if  the  doge  and  the  barons  had  a  sincere  inten- 
tion of  conquering  the  land  and  restoring  it  to  the  Catholic 
church,  all  who  died  in  that  good  cause,  repentant  of  their 
sins,  should  enjoy  the  full  benefit  of  the  pardons  which  the 
apostle   of  Rome  had   granted.     This  discourse,  we  are 
assured,  was  very  comfortable  to  the  barons  and  pilgrims. 

The  winter  was,  for  the  most  part,  employed  in  prepara- 
tions on  both  sides.  The  Greeks  could  no  longer  complain 
of  want  of  energy  in  their  emperor ;  and  Mourtzouphlus 
amply  proved  that  he  would  defend  with  bravery  the  throne 
which  he  had  not  scrupled  to  win  by  crime.  He  replenished 
the  exhausted  treasury,  established  strict  discipline  among 
the  disorganized  troops,  repaired  the  shattered  fortifications, 

K2 


? 


114 


DEFEAT  OF  MOURTZOUPHLUS. 


and  by  continued  application  both  of  threats  and  encourage- 
ment, sought  to  inspire  tlio  timid  citizens  with  some  por- 
tion of  his  own  courage.     Bearing  an  iron  mace  in  his 
hand,  he  daily  visited  the  chief  posts,  and  while  thus  recruit- 
in  <t  his  means  for  war,  he  did  not  neglect  the  chances  of 
pacific  negotiation.     The  barons  would  have  treated,  and 
their  demand  for  peace  was  fifty  thousand  pounds  of  gold, 
about  two  millions  sterling.     Dandolo  was  intrusted  with 
the  arrangement  of  the  terms,  and  a  conference  was  held 
between  the  adverse  chiefs,  which  sufficiently  betokens  their 
mutual  distrust.     The  emperor  appeared  on  horseback  on 
the  shore  ;  the  doge  remained  in  his  galley ;  and  Nicetas 
affirms  that  the  parley  was  interrupted  by  a  treacherous 
attempt  of  the  Latin  cavalry  to  surprise    Mourtzouphlus. 
Be  this  as  it  may,  hostilities  were  recommenced ;  a  second 
attempt  to  destroy  the  fleet  of  the  invaders  by  fire  proved 
as  unavailing  as  the  first ;  and  in  a  sally  which  the  empe- 
ror afterward  headed  in  person,  he  was  repulsed  with  no 
less  disgrace  than  loss.     Henry,  Count  Baldwin's  brother, 
was  returning,  after  a  brilliant  foray,  from  the  shores  of  the 
Euxine  ;  the  rich  spoil  of  Phile,  a  Thracian  town  which  he 
had  stormed,  was  the  recompense  of  his  valour ;  and  his 
knights  joyously  and  perhaps  carelessly  were   escorting 
homeward  such  portions  of  their  booty  as  had  not  been 
already  transmitted  to  the  camp.     Apprized  of  these  move- 
ments, the  emperor  advanced  by  night,  and  posting  in  am- 
buscade a  much  superior  force  upon  their  line  of  march,  he 
allowed  the  main  body  of  the  Franks  to  pass  unmolested 
with  its  plunder,  nor  attacked  them  until  the  rear  began  to 
be  entangled  in  a  wood.     Changing  their  front,  the  Latin 
knights  stood  firm  ;  and  the  Greeks,  ill-prepared  for  such 
unexpected  resistance,  were  panic-stricken  and  fled,  while 
twenty  chiefs  of  distinction  were  killed  or  made  prisoners  ; 
and  but  for  the  fleetness  of  his  horse  the  emperor  himself 
would  have  been  captured.     He  did  not  escape  without  the 
unknightly  abandonment  of  his  shield,  his  chariot  of  arms, 
and  his  imperial  banner  ;*  and  in  the  loss  of  another,  and  a 

*  Chiptitm.  abjecit  is  the  brief  expression  of  Count  Baldwin,  in  his 
letter  to  ttie  pope.  Villehardouin  says  that  Mourt/ouphlus  lost  ses  chars 
d'armes,  et  pnrdi  smi  gonfnnon  imperial,  et  une  ancone  qiCil  faisoit. 
porter  de\iant  Jui,  mi  il  sefioit  nuyidt,  il  et  li  autre  Ore.  En  die  ancone 
ire  Nostre-Dame  formre  (119).  By  the  chars  cTarmes,  Ramusio,  among 
others,  understands  the  carroecio,  which  Ducange,  however,  thinks  was 


i  ii 


IIG 


TREATY  BETWEEN  THE  CRUSADERS. 


more  venerated  standard  on  the  same  field,  the  superstitious 
f  Jreeks  beheld  an  evil  omen  for  the  future  contest.  The 
victories  of  the  Comneni  hatl  been  ascribed  to  the  influence 
of  a  sacred  ensign  which,  besides  the  propitious  image  of 
the  Virgin,  bore  other  relics  of  immeasurable  sanctity.  A 
portion  of  the  lance  which  pierced  the  Saviour  while  on  the 
cross,  and  a  tooth  shed  by  him  in  his  childhood,  were  among 
these  treasures  ;  and  the  Icania,  like  the  Laharum  of  Con- 
stantine,  had  invariably  marked  the  path  of  triumph.  This 
trophy  was,  in  the  first  instance,  presented  to  the  Order  of 
Cistercians,  and  by  purchase  or  by  some  of  those  other  less 
expensive  processes  through  which,  as  we  have  before  seen, 
the  Venetians  were  accustomed  to  supply  their  reliquaries, 
it  was  afterward  transferred  to  Dandolo.*  It  was  deposited 
in  the  treasury  of  St.  Mark,  whence,  on  festivals  more  espe- 
cially dedicated  to  the  honour  of  the  Virgin,  it  was  borne 
to  the  high  altar,  amid  a  blaze  of  lighted  tapers  and  a  throng 
of  ministering  priests,  as  a  proud  monument  of  national 
renown. 

Lent  was  near  at  hand  before  the  preparations  of  the 
besiegers  were  sufficiently  advanced  to  render  an  assault 
practicable ;  and  of  the  assured  confidence  with  which  it 
was  then  undertaken  they  have  left  a  record  to  which  his- 
tory presents  no  parallel.  Had  they  not  succeeded,  it  would 
for  ever  have  risen  up  against  their  memories  as  a  signal 
record  of  overweening  presumption ;  but  coupled  with  their 
triumphs,  it  as  signally  displays  the  poUtical  wisdom  and 
sagacity  of  Dandolo,  to  whom  there  can  be  little  doubt 
it  must  be  mainly  ascribed.  In  order  to  prevent  dissension 
after  the  city  should  be  taken,  it  was  resolved  in  a  parlia- 
ment of  the  barons,  held  before  it  was  attacked,  that  they 
would  observe  the  following  agreement. — The  whole  spoil 
was  to  be  collected  and  shared  according  to  stipulated  pro- 
portions.    Six  French  and  six  Venetian  electors  should  be 

unknown  to  the  Byzantine  military  establishment.  He  believes  it  to 
have  been  the  emperor'a  baggage.  In  the  text  we  have  literally  trans- 
lated the  tenn  used  by  Villehardouin. 

*  Baldwin,  in  his  letter  to  the  pope,  says,  quam  Ordini  Cisterciensi 
nnstri  dedicavere  victores.  Gibbon  remarks,  that  if  the  banner  shown 
at  Venice  be  genuine,  "  the  pious  doge  must  have  cheated  the  monks  of 
Citeaux."  Ramusio  makes  it  fall  honestly  to  the  share  of  his  coun- 
trymen. Ea  cum  Dandulo  Duci  in  rerum  divisione  sorte  obtigisset. 
(iii.  p.  113.) 


SECOND  SIEGE  OF  CONSTANTINOPLE. 


117 


chosen  for  the  important  task  of  nominating  an  emperor, 
for  Mourtzouphlus  was  to  cease  to  reign.  Upon  the  prince 
thus  appointed  should  be  conferred  a  fourth  part  of  the  capi- 
tal and  of  the  provinces,  together  with  the  palaces  of  Bu- 
coleon  and  Blachernae.  The  remainder,  having  been  appor- 
tioned into  two  parts,  should  be  equally  divided  between  the 
French  and  the  Venetians.  Lastly,  four-and-twenty  of  the 
most  experienced  pilgrims,  half  French  and  half  Venetians, 
should  allot  the  fiefs  and  honours  among  their  respective 
countrymen,  and  determine  the  feudal  service  to  be  paid  for 
them  to  the  emperor.*  This  extraordinary  treaty  was 
ratified  and  sworn  to  in  forms  the  most  solemn  which  could 
be  devised,  and  excommunication  was  denounced  as  the 
penalty  against  any  one  who  should  infringe  its  terms.  That 
its  provisions  were  afterward  completed  to  the  letter  is  even 
more  deserving  of  wonder  than  that  they  were  previously 
stipulated. 

The  events  of  the  former  siege,  and  the  difl^erent  fortunes 
which  the  assailants  had  respectively  encountered,  induced 
a  material  change  in  the  plan  of  the  new  attack.  It  was 
no  longer  thought  advisable  that  the  city  should  be  invested 
by  land  ;  but  that  the  joint  force  of  the  allies  should  be  con- 
centrated in  one  great  naval  eflfort.  The  difficulties  of  ap- 
proach from  the  port  had  been  in  some  degree  increased  ; 
but  the  remembrance  that  the  Venetians  had  once  already 
triumphed  on  those  walls  removed  all  doubt  of  sunilar  glory 
from  the  sanguine  anticipation  of  the  French.     The  ram- 

*  The  treaty  is  given  at  length  by  Dandolo,  x.  3.  32.  a-pvd  Muratori, 
xii.  323.  The  passage  in  it  relative  to  the  distribution  of  the  spoil  is,  aa 
f^r  as  we  understand  it,  at  variance  with  the  actual  distribution  which, 
as  we  shall  see  by-and-by,  took  place.  The  following  are  the  words  of 
the  Venetian  copy  of  the  tripartite  instrument,  and  their  discrepancy 
from  Villehardouin's  text  has  not,  as  we  believe,  been  noticed  heretofore. 
After  stating  that  the  whole  booty  is  to  be  deposited  in  common,  the 
treaty  proceeds— rfe  quo  tamen  havere  nobis  et  hominibns  ?iostris  Venetis 
tres  partes  debetit  solvi,  pro  illo  ut  havere  quod  Alexins  quondam 
imperator,  nobis  et  vobis  solvere  tenebatur.  Quartam  vero  partem  vobis 
retinere  debetis,  donee  fuerimvs  ipsd  solutione  cocBquales.  Si  aittetn 
aliquid  residuatum  fuerit,  per  medietatem  inter  nos  etvos  dividere, 
usquedum  fuerimus  appaXiati.  Si  vero  minus  fuerit,  ita  quod  non 
possit  sufficere  ad  memoratum  debitum  persolvendum,  uridecunque 
fuerit  prius  dictum  havere  acquisitum,  ex  eo  dtbemus  dictum,  ordinem 
observare.  Hence  it  would  appear,  that,  instead  of  there  being  an  equal 
division,  the  Venetians  in  the  very  outset  were  to  receive  three-fourths 
ot  the  whole. 


I  i 


118 


REPULSE  OF  THE  LATINS. 


parts  might  have  been  heightened,  and  the  towers  crowned 
with  loftier  galleries  of  more  numerous  stages  ;  but  what 
were  a  few  feet  more  or  less  to  spirits  resolved  on  victory  1 
To  detail  the  attack  which  followed  would  he  a  needless 
repetition ;  for,  in  all  but  its  event,  it  bore  a  close  resem- 
blance to  that  which  we  have  already  related.     Each  divi- 
sion embarked  in  its  own  vessels,  and  the  strictest  order  was 
preserved  in  the  separate  distribution  of  ships,  galleys,  and 
palanders,  throuTh  a  line  of  more  than  half  a  league  in 
extent.    On  the  morning  of  the  9th  of  April,  they  approached 
that  quarter  of  the  city  which  the  fire  had  most  severely 
ravaged,  between  the  palace  of  Blachemae  and  the  monas 
tery  of  Euergetes.     In  many  places  the  pilgrims  leaped 
ashore  and  charged  up  to  the  very  walls,  protected  by  shields 
of  ampler  size  and  stronger  fabric  than  those  they  bore  m 
common,  to  ward  the  destructive  missiles  from  above.     In 
other  spots,  the  ladders  of  the  ships  were  brought  so  near 
that  those  who  mounted  them  and  the  soldiers  who  defended 
the  walls  and  towers,  fought  hand  to  hand  with  their  lances. 
About  noon,  after  unavailing  attempts  in  more  than  a  hun- 
dred places,  those  who  had  landed  were  driven  back  with 
much  slaughter  to  their  ships,  and  the  fleet  was  compelled 

to  draw  off. 

Defeated  but  not  discouraged,  the  barons  held  a  council 
on  the  same  evening,  in  the  church  of  Ss.  Cosrtio  and  Da- 
miano.      Some   dejection   and   much  variety  of  opinions 
might  naturally  be  expected  ;  and  it  was  proposed  to  assault 
afresh,  but  in  a  different  quarter,  on  the  side  of  the  Pro- 
pontis,  where  the  fortifications  were  less  strong.     To  such 
a  plan  Dandolo  strenuously  objected  that  the  well-known 
current  would  bear  the  ships  down  the  strait,  so  that  they 
could  not  be  brought  to  the  walls.     By  some,  as  Villehar- 
douin  confesses,  no  other  consummation  was  more  devoutly 
sighed  for.     "  Truly  there  were  many  who  in  their  hearts 
v/ished  the  winds  and  waves  might  carry  away  the  fleet, 
they  cared  not  whither,  so  that  they  might  quit  that  coun- 
try and  return  to  their  homes.     It  was  a  natural  desire, 
for  the  dangers  were  very  great."     To  a  chronicler  thus 
frank  in  his  avowals,  it  is  not  easy  to  refuse  implicit  confi- 
dence. 

In  the  end  it  was  decided  that  another  effort  should  be 
renewed  against  the  same  spot,  with  this  change  of  tactics* 


SECOND  ASSAULT. 


119 


that,  as  the  force  on  each  tower  far  exceeded  that  which 
any  single  ship  could  bring  against  it,  the  vessels  should 
be  linked  in  pairs  together,  in  order  that  their  crews  might 
thus,  perhaps,  obtain  a  numerical  superiority.  Two  days' 
repose  was  granted  to  the  wearied  troops  ;  and  on  the  fol- 
lowing Monday  they  again  armed  and  crossed  the  gulf. 
Mourtzouphlus,  meantime,  elated  by  his  successful  defence, 
had  pitched  his  tents  near  the  monastery  Pantetoptes  ;  and 
the  imperial  pavilion,  glowing  with  its  purple  tapestries, 
crowned  the  summit  of  a  hill,  whence  the  anxious  emperor, 
no  idle  gazer  like  his  unwarlikc  predecessor,  but  fulfilling 
all  the  charges  of  an  able  general,  marshalled  his  troops, 
distributed  his  orders,  observed  the  changes  of  the  fight, 
and  regulated  his  defence  accordingly.  The  whole  fore- 
noon was  passed,  as  before,  in  bloody  and  undecisive  com- 
bat ;  and  if  fortune  inclined  cither  way,  it  was,  perhaps,  in 
favour  of  the  Greeks.  Towards  midday,  "  the  Lord  raised 
a  northerly  wind  which  drove  the  ships  nearer  shore."  At 
that  moment,  two  galleys  of  happy  omen,  the  Pilgrim  and 
the  Paradise  (they  were  freighted  with  the  holy  burden  of 
the  Bishops  of  Troyes  and  Soissons),  bore  down  together 
against  one  tower.  Though  linked,*  they  touched  it  on 
opposite  sides,  "  as  God  and  the  winds  directed."  The 
bridges  were  lowered  from  the  yards,  and  in  an  instant, 
almost  before  they  rested  upon  the  battlements,  a  knight 
sprang  forward  upon  each  of  them.  They  were  followed 
by  countless  others,  and  the  tower  was  gained.  In  this 
distuiguished  act  of  gallantry,  the  French  and  the  Vene- 
tians were  equal  sharers.  Andre  d'Urboise  survived  for  an- 
other field,  but  Pietro  Alberto  was  less  fortunate  ;  he  was 
mortally  wounded,  on  the  very  ramparts  which  he  had  won, 
by  a  Frank,  who  in  the  heat  of  battle  mistook  him  for  an 
enemy. 

Four  other  towers  were  speedily  scaled  from  the  shore ; 
three  gates  were  forced,  and  the  knights,  mounting  their 
horses,  dashed  forward  through  the  city  to  the  emperor's 
pavilion.  Mourtzouphlus  had  prepared  for  their  reception, 
but  his  bold  designs  were  feebly  seconded  ;  and  the  terror 
of  the  Greeks  may  be  learned  from  their  own  historian, 

♦  Villeliardouin  (127)  positively  asserts  that  the  ships  were  linked. 
Ramusio,  on  what  authority  we  know  not,  separates  them.  Baldwin, 
in  his  letter     Xoiiocent,  expressly  writes,  Duo:  naves pariter  colUgat<z. 


i 


ill 


?:i 


* 


120 


FLIGHT  OF  MOURTZOUrHLUS. 


who  speaks  of  a  single  warrior,  of  dimensions  more  than 
human,  aspiring  to  no  less  a  height  than  eighteen  yards, 
and  bearing  on  his  brows  a  casque  high  as  a  turreted  city, 
who  penetrated  to  the  tent  of  the  emperor.     It  can  be  no 
wonder  that  the  imperial  guards  fled  before  a  monster  so 
portentous ;   and  of  those  who  could  credit  such  a  tale,  it 
may  be  in  turn  bcUeved,  on  the  authority  of  Count  Bald- 
win, that  a  hundred  were  scattered  by  one.     Unable  to 
maintain  himself,  the   emperor  retired  to  Bucoleon,  while 
the  Latins  poured  in  at  every  quarter,  and  in  each  were 
victorious.      The  gate  of  Blachemse  was  choked  with  fugi- 
tives, and  of  the  wounded  and  the  dead  there  was  neither 
end  nor  measure.     Night  alone  checked  the  slaughter  and 
pursuit,  and  as  it  fell  the  pilgrims  gathered  in  the  great 
square,  overjoyed  at  the  unexpected  extent  of  their  success, 
and  not  yet  aware  of  all  its  wonders.     The  city  abounded 
with  strongholds  in  its  churches  and  palaces  ;   of  the  tem- 
per of  its  dense  population  the  conquerors  were  as  yet 
without  experience;   resistance  might  still  be  designed; 
and  on  these  accounts,  with  wise  precaution,  they  distri- 
buted their  stations  near  the  walls.     It  should  not  be  for- 
gotten, and  it  was  doubtless  received  as  an  omen  at  the 
time,  that  on  the  first  night  of  his  conquest  of  Constanti- 
nople, Baldwin  of  Flanders  slept  in  the  pavilion  which  the 
emperor  had  abandoned. 

The  night  was  not  spent  idly  by  Mourtzouphlus.  Hav- 
ing in  vain  attempted  to  rally  his  adherents,  he  took  refuge 
in  the  fastnesses  of  Thrace,  after  escaping  through  the 
Golden  Gate.  That  gate  had  been  closed  for  two  hundred 
years  ;  and  it  bore  engraven  on  it  an  inscription,  long 
beforehand  regarded  as  prophetic,  and  afterward  believed  to 
have  been  fulfilled  in  this  flight  of  the  emperor.  "  When 
the  fair-haired  king  of  the  West  shall  come,  I  shall  open 
of  myself  ?"* — Another  prediction  had  ensured  the  city  from 

*  Raynuldus  de  Diceto  apud  X  Scriptores,  642.  Quando  veniet  rex 
Jlamis  Occidentalism  ego  per  me  ipsum  aperiar. 

This  fair  complexion  is  again  to  be  destructive  to  Constantinople.  Mr, 
Forster,  in  the  Notes  to  \\i9  Mahomet anism  Unveiled,  ii.  491,  a  work 
which  recalls  to  our  memories  the  boldness  and  acuteness  of  Warburton, 
without  his  paradox  or  his  dogmatism,  has  cited  the  following  passage. 
WalhchiiLs,  in  Vitd  Mahometis  (p.  158)  rtfert,  Turcas  hodiernos  in  an- 
nalibus  suis  legere,  taradiii  perstiturmn  re^num  Mahammedic.um, 
do/uc  veniant  figluoli  biondi,  i.  e.  fiavi  ct  albijilii  velJiUi  a  Septentrione^ 


SUBMISSION  OF  THE  CITY. 


121 


capture  unless  through  an  angel ;  and  we  are  informed  by 
an  authority  not  remote  from  these  times,  that  the  rumour 
of  the  Latin  conquest  was  disbelieved  for  many  days  in  the 
surrounding  country,  until  it  was  ascertained  that  the  walls 
had  been  scaled  at  a  spot  on  which  an  angel  was  painted.* 
Nor  had  the  Erythrean  sibyl  been  wanting  in  denuncia- 
tions ;  her  mysterious  oracles,  indeed,  baflle  the  skill  of  tho 
interpreter  ;  but  we  collect  from  them  dark  threats  of  a 
gathering  in  the  Adriatic,  of  a  blind  commander,  of  the  profa- 
nation of  Byzantium,  of  the  firing  of  her  public  buildings, 
and  of  the  dispersion  of  her  spoil,  t 

On  the  flight  of  Mourtzouphlus,  both  Theodore  Lascaris 
and  Theodore  Ducas  attempted  to  rouse  their  fellow-citizens 
to  arms,  and  competed  for  the  vacant  crown.     The  popu- 
lace assembled  round  Sta.  Sophia,  and  hailed  Lascaris  em- 
peror ;    but  though  they  bestowed  this  barren  sceptre,  not 
all  his  exhortations  could  excite  them  to  defend  it,  so  that, 
hopeless  of  his  country,  he  too  followed   in  the  steps  of 
Mourtzouphlus.     The  license  of  a  victorious  soldiery  in  a 
captured  city  is  not  easily  restrained  by  discipline  ;  and  be- 
fore morning,  whether  out  of  wantonness  or  as  a  desperate 
protection  for  his  own  quarters,  a  German  count  set  fire  to 
some  buildings  which  separated  his  troops  from  the  enemy. 
All  that  night,  and  till  vespers  on  the  morrow,  the  flames 
continued   burning ;    and   by  this   fire,   the   third   similar 
scourge  with  which  Constantinople  had  been  visited  since 
the  arrival  of  the  Franks,  more  houses  we  are  assured  were 
destroyed  than  were  contained  in  any  three  of  the  most 
populous  cities  of  France. 

At  dawn  the  Latins  mustered  at  their  several  posts,  ex* 
pecting  a  renewal  of  their  yester  toils,  and  perhaps  a  still 
more  serious  resistance  than  had  been  hitherto  encountered. 
To  their  surprise  they  were  met,  not  by  armed  men,  but  by 
a  suppliant  crowd  of  priests  and  women,  holding  out  the 


Jlavis  et  albis  capillis  secundum  aliorum 
Schultetus,  Ecc.les.  Muhamm.  p.  22. 
*  Henricus  de  Knyghton,  apvA  X  Scrip 
t  Dandolo,  x.  334,  apud  Muratori,  xii.  3*^ 
is  as  follows  :   Fiet  potentium  in  aquis  a. 
perduce.    Hircum  amhigent,  Byzantium  pi 
grabunt,  spolia  dispergentur.     Hircus  nov 
pedes  et  9  pollices  et  semis  vrcEmensurati  disc 
Vol.  I.--L 


pretationem.~M.  Samuel 

p.  2416. 

iC  prophecy  of  the  sibyl 

ticis  congregatio,  coeco 

inabunt,  etdificia  deni- 

alabit,  usque  dum,  M 

-  mt. 


It 


«-\',.- 


122 


MISERY  OF  THE  CAPTtlREI^  CITY. 


cross  to  them  as  brethren,  and  deprecating  violence  by 
tears.     When  the  Marquis  of  Montferrat  took  possession 
of  Blachernffi,  that  palace  was  filled  with  high-born  dames  ; 
and  his  protection  was  implored,  among  others,  by  two 
empresses  of  Constantinople.     One,  a  daughter  of  France, 
claimed  Louis  VII.  as  her  father,  Philippe  Auguste  as  her 
brother.     The  other  was  a  sister  of  the  King  of  Hungary. 
Agnes,  the  former,  had  been  married  first  to  Alexms  Com- 
nenus,  and  afterward  to  Andronicus  ;  Margaret,  the  latter, 
one  of  the  most  celebrated  beauties  of  her  time,  was  then 
in  her  second  month  of  widowhood  from  Isaac  Angelus. 
She  was  destined  once  more  to  1      ome  the  bride  of  a  sove- 
reign ;  and  her  charms,  pcrhap    Heightened  by  her  tears, 
so  far  gained  upon  Boniface,  ti       he  shared  with  her  the 
throne  to  which,  as  a  reward  f      /alour,  he  was  soon  after- 
ward exalted.     Of  this  kingdf       the  cry  of  the  vanquished, 
as  he  passed  through  the  strec .     might  already  have  created 
an  anticipation  ;  for  he  was  everywhere  saluted  with  the 
^ords, — "  Holy  marquis,  king !  have  mercy  upon  us !" 

Alas  !  for  the  scenes  which  followed  I    If  the  slaughter 
were  not  so  bloody  as  has  sometimes  been  inflicted  after  a 
storm,  yet  the  massacre  of  two  thousand  unresisting  suf- 
ferers cannot  be  related  without  horror  ;  and  there  were 
calamities  to  be  endured  by  the  most  defenceless  to  which 
death  itself  would  have  been  far  preferable.     Nicetas,  in 
his  personal  narrative,  has  presented  a  lively  picture  of 
these  miseries.     After  the  destruction  of  his  house  in  the 
second  fire,  he  was  for  a  short  time  concealed  and  protected 
by  the  fidelity  of  a  Venetian  merchant,  who  had  been  bis 
friend  and  inmate  during  prosperity,  and  who,  true  to  him 
in  this  change  of  fortune,  assumed  a  military  garb  and  stood 
sentinel  at  his  gate.     When  longer  abode  within  the  walls 
threatened  certain  destruction,  the  logothete,  in  company 
with  some  other  fugitives,  sought  escape  from  the  city. 
They  journeyed  on  foot,  during  an  inclement  season,  while 
his  wife  was  far  advanced  in  pregnancy  ;  they  bore  in  their 
arms  their  children,  one  of  whom  was  still  at  the  breast, 
and  they  carried  with  them  such  scanty  relics  of  property 
as  they  could  secrete  about  their  persons.     The  women 
who  composed  part  of  this  wretched  band  had  adopted 
various  disguises,  smearing  their  cheeks  with  dirt,  and 
clinging  eagerly  to  disfigurement  for  protection.     All  were 


I 


OUTRAGES  OF  THE  CONQUERORS. 


123 


not  alike  successful ;  and  but  for  the  courage  of  Nicetas, 
and  a  pathetic  appeal  by  which  he  won  over  even  his  ene- 
mies to  her  assistance,  one  young  maiden,  the  daughter  of 
a  judge,  who  had  been  torn  from  her  aged  father's  arms, 
would  have  been  dishonoured  by  a  licentious  soldier.  Forty 
miles  were  to  be  traversed  before  they  could  feel  assured 
even  of  comparative  safety;  and  ere  this  painful  march 
was  closed,  they  received  conviction,  if  such  had  been 
needed,  that  their  religion  was  involved  in  the  common 
wreck.  The  Patriarch  of  Constantinople,  happy  to  escape 
with  life,  was  bending  in  the  same  course  with  themselves 
towards  Selymbria,  stripped  of  all  his  possessions,  and 
almost  of  his  very  clothing,  unattended,  and  mounted  upon 
an  ass. 

Meantime,  within  the  city,  the  throne  from  which  the 
patriarch  had  been  expelled  was  impiously  profaned.  A 
frantic  woman,  whose  enormities  arc  represented  in  strong 
metaphor  by  Nicetas,  and  whose  lightest  stain  was  an  im- 
putation of  sorcery,  was  installed  in  the  patriarchal  seat,  in 
sacrilegious  mockery  of  the  oriental  worship,  while  the 
vaults  of  Sta.  Sophia  echoed  with  the  ribaldry  and  loose 
songs  of  drunken  revellers.  The  holy  elements  were  scat- 
tered on  the  rich  pavement  already  defiled  with  the  gore  of 
slaughtered  animals,  which  had  been  driven  in  to  carry 
away  the  pillage,  and  had  fallen  exhausted  under  their  bur- 
dens. The  tombs  of  the  emperors  in  the  church  of  the 
Holy  Apostles  were  forced  open  ;  and  in  the  coffin  of  Jus- 
tinian the  riflers  were  astonished  at  beholding  the  body  which 
it  contained,  when  torn  from  its  cerements  and  their  golden 
coverings,  unaflTected  by  decay,  after  six  centuries  of  inter- 
ment. Never,  under  any  circumstances,  was  the  rapacity 
of  a  victorious  army  pennitted  to  glut  itself  more  unre- 
servedly ;  and  even  where  gain  was  not  consequent  on  de- 
struction, the  more  than  Cxothic  fury  of  these  civilized  bar- 
barians gratified  itself  by  exercise  of  the  power  to  destroy. 
We  read  without  surprise  that  the  veil  of  the  sanctuary  in 
Sta.  Sophia  was  rent,  and  the  altar  of  the  Virgin  shattered 
in  pieces  ;  for  they  blazed  with  gold  and  jewels.  The  rich 
gilt  and  silvered  carvings,  the  gems  and  embossed  chalices, 
the  plate  and  other  treasures  of  the  churches,  could  little 
hope  to  escape  confiscation,  on  the  plea  that  they  were  ap- 
propriated to  pious  uses.     But  the  long  catalogue  of  pre- 


I. 


124 


THE  VENETIAN  HORSES. 


cious  works  of  art,  ruined  by  stupid,  brutal,  and  unfeeling 
ignorance,  excites  no  less  astonishment  than  regret  and  in- 
dignation.    Books,  the  whole  literature  of  the  time,  never 
to  be  replaced, — ^marbles,  pictures,  statues,  obelisks,  and 
bronzes, — countless  treasures,  which  the  magnificence,  the 
pride,  the  luxury,   or  the  good  taste  of  her  princes  had 
lavished  durinnr  nine  centuries   upon  this  their  favourite 
capital, — prizes  which  Egypt,  Greece,  and  Rome  had  sup- 
plied, and  which  had  justly  rendered  Constantinople  the 
wonder  of  nations, — perished  indiscriminately  beneath  the 
fury  of  the  marauders  ;    and  while  almost  every  church 
throughout  Christendom  received  a  large  accession  to  its 
reliquary  from  the  translated  bones  of  saints  and  confessors,* 
scarcely  one  monument  of  ancient  skill  and  taste  was  thought 
worthy  of  preservation  for  a  similar  purpose.     The  Vene- 
tians afford  a  solitary  exception,  in  the  removal  from  the 
hippodrome  of  the  four  horses  of  gilt  bronze  which  (ex- 
cept during  the  short  interval  of  their  transfer  to  Paris  by 
Buonaparte,  in  a  like  exercise  of  a  presumed  right  of  con- 
quest) have  ever  since  crowned  the  western  porch  of  the 
basilica  of  St.  Mark.t     Antiquaries  appear  to  hesitate  con- 
cerning the  date  and  even  the  native  country  of  these  horses ; 
for  by  some  they  have  been  assigned  to  the  Roman  school, 
and  to  the  age  of  Nero  ;  by  others  to  the  Greeks  of  Chio,  at 
a  much  earlier  period.     Though  far  from  deserving  a  place 
among  the  choicest  specimens  of  art,  their  possession,  if  we 
may  trust  their  most  generally  received  history,  has  always 

*  Of  this  holy  ware  the  Venetians  obtained  a  large  allotment.    Ra- 
musio  has  given  a  catalogue  of  its  contents.    They  consisted  of  a  pieoe 
of  the  true  cross ;  an  arm  of  St.  Gregory,  according  to  Ramusio,— of  St. 
cieorge,  according  to  Dandolo  ({)erhaps  it  might  not  b«  easy  to  ascertain 
the  right  owner) ;  a  part  of  the  head  of  John  Baptist ;  the  bodies  of  Saints 
Lucia  and  Agatha,  and  of  the  holy  Simeon  ;  a  phial  containing  the  blood 
of  our  Saviour,  which  had  flowed  from  a  statue  pierced  by  the  Jews  at 
Berytus ;  a  fragment  of  the  pillar  at  which  he  was  scourged ;  a  nail 
from  the  cross,  and  a  prickle  from  the  crown  of  thorns.  (Lib.  iii.  p.  131, 
&c.)    The  authenticity  of  mast  of  these  relics  was  ascertained  by  their 
remaining  unhurt  during  a  fire  which  consumed  the  sanctuary  wherein 
they  were  deposited,  under  the  reign  of  Thiepolo.    The  miracle  did  not 
attract  sufliicient  attention  at  the  time  of  its  occurrence ;  but  some  years 
afterward,  in  1265,  a  formal  attestation  of  it  was  drawn  up,  and  pre- 
sented to  Clement  IV.    (Doglioni,  iii.  p.  142.) 

t  The  writings  of  Cicoguara,  Schlegel,  and  Mustoxidi  may  be  consulted 
by  those  who  wish  to  enter  more  ftiily  into  an  inquiry  relative  to  these 
liorsifs. 


RICHNESS  OF  THE  BOOTY. 


125 


been  much  coveted.  Augustus,  it  is  said,  brought  them 
from  Alexandna,  after  his  conquest  of  Antony,  and  erected 
them  on  a  triumphal  arch  in  Rome  :  hence  they  were  suc- 
cessively removed  by  Nero,  Domitian,  Trajan,  and  Constan- 
tme,  to  arches  of  their  own  ;  and  in  each  of  these  positions 
It  IS  believed  that  they  were  attached  to  a  chariot.  Con- 
stantine,  in  the  end,  transferred  them  to  his  new  capital.  It 
may  be  added  to  their  story,  that  when  reconveyed  to 
Venice  by  the  Austrian  government,  in  1815,  the  captain  of 
the  vessel  selected  for  this  honourable  service  claimed  de- 
scent from  the  great  Dandolo ;  and  it  is  satisfactory  to  be 
told  that  of  all  the  works  of  art  restored  at  that  time  to 
their  rightful  owners  these  horses  suffered  least  injury  from 
travelling,  because  they  had  been  taken  down  and  packed 
by  the  English.  The  lion  of  St.  Mark  was  less  fortunate, 
but  he  has  been  carefully  repaired.* 

But,  not  to  dwell  upon  this  distressing  and  distrracefiil 
portion  of  our  narrative,  nor  to  detail  with  the  sufferers 
their  separate  wrongs  and  calamities,  it  may  suffice  to  pro- 
duce the  general  estimate  afforded  by  the  conquerors.  "Of 
the  treasures  which  were  in  the  palace  of  Bucoleon,  I  can- 
not speak,"  says  Villehardouin,  "  for  their  value  was  ines- 
timable. In  Blachernae,  one  so  immense  v^as  found,  that  it 
rivalled  that  in  Bucoleon.  The  other  pilgrims  who  were 
scattered  over  the  city  gained  incalculable  plunder ;  for 
there  was  no  estimating  the  quantity  of  silver  and  gold 
precious  vessels,  jewels,  rich  stuffs,  silks,  robes  of  vair,  gris! 
and  ermine,  and  other  valuables,  the  productions  of  all  the 
clmiates  in  the  world ;  and  it  is  my  belief  that  the  plunder 
of  this  city  exceeded  all  that  had  been  witnessed  since  the 
creation  of  the  world."t  Or,  if  we  turn  to  Ramusio,  we 
shall  be  dazzled  by  the  bright  profusion  which  glitters  down 
his  pages,  in  describing  the  acquisitions  of  his  countrj-men. 
Gold,  silver,  tapestries,  and  furs,  silks  fresh  from  the  looni 
or  prepared  for  it ;  vases  for  every  use  which  the  caprice 
of  luxury  could  suggest,  and  of  more  various  names  than 
we  can  hope  to  translate  with  accuracy  ;  those  costly  and 
now  unknown  myrrhines  which  Pompey  had  won  in  his  tri- 
umphs over  Mithridates  and  Tigranes ;  gems  wrought  into 
drinking-vessels,   among  which  the   least   precious  were 

*  Rose's  Letters  from  the  North  of  Italy.  t  Sect  132 

L2 


iij 


126 


DISTRIBUTION  OF  THE  PLUNDER. 


ELECTION  OF  A  LATIN  EMPEROR, 


127 


framed  of  turquoise,  jasper,  or  amethyst ;  jewels,  with  which 
the  affection  or  the  pride  of  the  oriental  despots  was  wont 
to  deck  their  imperial  brides  ;  crowns  of  solid  gold  studded 
with  pearls  ;  rings  and  brooches  set  with  the  purest  and  most 
inestunable  stones  ;  unnumbered  jacinths,  emeralds,  sap- 
phires, chrysolites,  and  topazes  ;  and,  lastly,  those  match- 
less carbuncles  which,  placed  on  the  high  altar  at  St.  Mark's, 
blazed  with  intrinsic  light  and  scattered  darkness  by  their 
own  beams, — these  are  but  a  sample  of  the  treasures  which 
accrued  to  Venice  ;  and  the  historian,  in  adverting  to  them, 
appears  conscious  that  language  must  fail  him,  in  the 
attempt  to  convey  an  adequate  impression  of  their  immea- 
surable extent,  their  inappreciable  cost,  and  their  inexhaust- 
ible variety.* 

It  was  no  part  of  the  design  of  the  barons  that  this  booty 
should  be  privately  appropriated,  and  proclamation  accord- 
ingly was  made  through  the  army,  that  it  should  be  brought 
in  and  deposited  together,  according  to  the  sworn  agree- 
ment. Three  churches  were  opened  to  receive  it,  and  they 
were  placed  under  the  ward  of  the  most  loyal  French  and 
Venetians.  Much,  however,  was  secreted  by  individuals. 
Those  detected  in  embezzlement  were  promptly  condemned 
and  executed  ;  and  it  is  plain  that  the  fraudulent  retention 
was  not  confined  to  the  lower  soldiers  only,  for,  among  the 
criminals  thus  punished,  we  read  of  a  knight  in  the  train  of 
the  Count  of  St.  Paul,  who,  in  order  that  his  disgrace  might 
be  enhanced,  was  hung  with  his  shield  suspended  from  his 
neck.  After  all  these  deductions,  which  were  supposed  to 
exceed  the  spoil  absolutely  brought  to  division,  and  to  which 
must  be  added  the  losses  suffered  in  three  fires,  we  find  the 
enormous  sum  of  1,125,000  marks  of  silver  distributed  in 
the  following  proportions  :  first,  a  fourth  part  of  the  whole 
was  set  aside  for  the  future  emperor  ;  then,  an  equal  divi- 
sion of  the  remainder  was  made  between  the  French  and 
Venetians,  and  the  latter  received  payment  of  their  debt  of 
fifty  thousand  marks  from  the  former.  In  the  shares  of 
each  individual,  one  mounted  sergeant  was  considered  equal 
to  two  sergeants  on  foot,  and  one  knight  to  two  mounted 
sergeants.  The  Venetians,  in  their  love  of  speculation,  had 
previously  offered  to  farm  the  whole  ;  promising  to  pay  one 

*  Lib.  iii.  p.  129, 


hundred  marks  to  each  footman,  double  that  sum  to  each 
horseman,  and  four  times  as  much  to  each  knight.  To  have 
been  gainers  by  this  bargain,  they  must  have  been  able  to 
produce  a  sum  considerably  larger  than  that  which  was 
really  brought  to  account ;  and  they  were  far  too  accurately 
versed  in  calculation  to  have  made  a  blind  and  unthrifty 
proposal.* 

A  month  was  passed  in  these  adjustments,  and  the  choice 
of  an  emperor  was  still  to  be  determined.  On  Sunday,  the 
9th  of  May,  the  twelve  electors  assembled  in  the  gororeous 
chapel  of  the  palace  of  Bucoleon,  which  had  been  assigned 
for  the  residence  of  the  doge  ;  and  here,  having  been  sworn 
upon  the  Saints  that  they  would  truly  and  faithfully  choose 
whomsoever  they  judged  most  proper  for  the  station  and 
most  capable  of  governing  the  empire,  they  proceeded  to 
their  important  deliberations.  The  Venetians  affirm  that 
their  doge  was  the  first  person  nominated  ;  not  by  his  own 
countrymen,  but  by  the  French  ;  and  that  it  required  the 
eloquence  and  wisdom  of  Barbo,  one  of  the  best  orators  and 
statesmen  of  his  time,  to  prove  to  the  other  electors  that 
such  a  choice  would  be,  in  every  way,  most  impolitic.  It 
is  far  from  improbable  that  such  a  discussion  really  did 
occur ;  for  the  brilliant  exploits  of  Dandolo  must  have  in- 
spired unbounded  admiration,  gratitude,  and  affection  ;  and, 

*  We  are  wholly  unable  to  reconcile  the  various  estimates  given  of 
this  booty ;  and  Villehardouin  has  manifestly  coutradicf  ed  himself,  unless 
he  means  'o  distinguish  between  money  and  other  property  ;  and  even 
in  that  case  he  is  hopelessly  obscure.  He  first  speaks  of  the  residue 
belonging;  to  the  French,  after  payment  of  their  debt  to  the  Venetians,  as 
100,000  marks  (§  124),  yet  in  the  following  sertioti  he  advances  it  to  more 
than  400,000.  Assumin;.'  the  latter  sum  to  be  correct,  we  shall  obtain  the 
following  result  according  to  the  generall)  received  distribution  :— 

French  residue 400,000 

Payment  to  Venetians      ....      50,000 
Venetian  share 450,000 

900,000 
Emperor's  fourth 2*25,000 

Total      1,125,000  marks  of  silver. 

Gibbon  estimates  400,000  marks  =  800,000/.  sterling  =  seven  times  the 
then  annual  revenue  oi'  England.  Following  up  this  calculation,  we 
obtain  the  whole  sum,  above  2,25O,000Z.,  or  more  than  twenty  times  that 
revenue. 

If  we  adopt  another  reading  in  Villehardouin,  of  500,000  for  400,000, 
(he  sum  will  be  increased,  in  round  numbers,  to  2,624,000/. 


4 


H  ! 


128 


BALDWIN   I. 


as  a  more  worWly  motive,  his  advanced  age  promised  a 
speedy  succession.  It  was  perhaps  only  by  such  intimate 
knowledge  of  the  incompatibility  of  the  two  offices,  as  none 
but  a  senator  of  Venice  was  able  to  advance,  that  those  evils 
could  be  fully  displayed,  which  must  result  from  placing 
the  same  person  at  the  head  of  the  closely-limited  govern- 
ment of  the  Lagunr,  and  of  the  unrestricted  despotism  of  the 
empire.  Villehardouin,  however,  omits  all  mention  of  Dan- 
dolo.  General  opinion,  he  says,  previously  to  the  election, 
had  so  exclusively  marked  out  the  Count  of  Flanders  and 
the  Marquis  of  Montferrat  as  sole  competitors,  that,  at  a  meet- 
ing of  their  respective  adherents,  it  had  been  wisely  deter- 
mined beforehand  to  set  apart  an  ample  provision  for  him 
who  should  be  disappointed  ;  and  thus  to  prevent  a  recur- 
rence of  that  destructive  jealousy  which  had  followed  the 
election  of  Godfrey  to  the  crown  of  Jerusalem.  It  was 
agreed  that  the  one  who  was  rejected  should  receive  the  isle 
of  Candia,  and  (however  vague  the  allotment)  "  all  the  coun- 
try on  the  Turkish  side  of  the  strait,"  for  which  he  should 
be  liegeman  to  the  emperor. 

It  is  quite  unnecessary  to  attribute  the  result  of  this  elec- 
tion to  any  petty  intrigue  ;  for  Baldwin,  in  whom  all  the 
suffrages  were  united,  was  a  descendant  of  Charlemagne, 
and  the  most  powerful  prince  in  the  army.  He  had  been  a 
great,  if  not  the  chief,  original  promoter  of  the  crusade  ; 
and  his  personal  virtues  commanded  general  esteem,  confi- 
dence, and  attachment.  Nicetas,  indeed,  in  his  bitterness 
against  the  Venetians,  has  taxed  Dandolo  with  private 
views  in  determining  the  choice  ;  but  the  Greek  historian 
has  not  been  fortunate  in  this  portion  of  his  narrative  ;  and 
it  may  be  believed  that  he  was  not  better  acquainted  with 
the  secrets  of  the  Latin  cabinet,  than  he  has  shown  himself 
tf  be  with  the  geographical  position  of  the  territory  of 
Montferrat  when  he  speaks  of  it  as  a  maritime  power.  In 
the  hall  of  the  palace,  the  Doge  of  Venice  and  the  barons 
impatiently  awaited  the  decision  of  the  electors  ;  and  it  was 
presented  to  them,  at  midnight,  by  the  Bishop  of  Soissons, 
in  the  following  tenns  : — "  Lords,  by  the  mercy  of  God,  we 
have  been  unanimous  in  the  choice  of  an  emperor.  You 
have  all  sworn  to  receive  for  your  emperor  the  person  whom 
we  should  appoint,  and  to  aid  and  maintain  him  against  all 
gainsayers.    And  now,  at  the  very  hour  in  which  our  Lord 


PARTITION  OF  THE  EMPIRE. 


129 


was  born,  we  declare  Baldwin,  Count  of  Flanders  and 
Hainault,  Emperor  of  Romania  I"  Shouts  of  joy  followed 
this  announcement:  the  Marquis  of  Montferrat  generously 
pressed  forward  to  be  the  first  who  should  tender  homage 
to  his  successful  rival  ;  and  the  new  emperor,  raised  upon 
his  shield,  was  exhibited  to  the  congratulations  of  the  popu- 
lace, and  borne  in  triumph  to  Sta.  Sophia. 

The  coronation  was  celebrated  in  that  cathedral,  with 
great  splendour,  on  the  23d  of  May  ;  when  the  calyptra 
was  placed  on  the  head  of  Baldwin  by  the  papal  legate,  who 
perfonned  the  functions  of  the  patriarch  not  yet  appointed. 
Before  this  solenmity  the  Marquis  of  Montferrat  had 
sought  and  obtained  the  hand  of  Margaret  of  Hungary. 
On  account  of  the  contiguity  of  the  dominions  of  his  brother- 
in-law  to  Thessalonica,  he  exchanged  for  that  kingdom 
the  territory  which  had  been  assigned  to  him,  and  sold  his 
right  over  Candia  to  the  Venetians. 

Little  more  of  this  eventful  history  remains,  unless,  as 
is  usual  in  the  winding-up  of  a  romance  or  a  drama,  to  dis- 
pose of  the  principal  characters  which  have  figured  during 
its  prooress.  To  distribute  exactly  the  fiefs  which  each 
received  would,  perhaps,  be  impossible  ;  for,  in  the  act  of 
partition  of  the  Greek  empire  (such  was  the  limited  know- 
ledge possessed  by  its  conquerors  of  the  lands  which  they 
had  won),  many  of  the  names  are  not  to  be  recognised,  and 
not  a  few  cities,  and  even  provinces,  are  altogether  omitted. 
It  would,  however,  be  ungrateful  to  the  valiant  knight  and 
faithful  chronicler  of  Champagne,  to  whose  pages  we  have 
been  so  largely  indebted,  if  we  omitted  to  notice  that  Geof- 
frey de  Villehardouin  obtained,  as  his  reward,  Messinople, 
on  the  banks  of  the  Hebrus,  with  the  title  of  Marshal  of 
Romania.  For  the  rest,  we  shall  confine  ourselves  to  the 
Venetians.  To  them  was  assigned  a  vast  territory,  in 
which  may  be  distinguished  the  well-known  names  of 
iEgospotamos,  Nicomedia,  Adrianople,  part  of  Euboea, 
Egina,  MegalopoUs,  Methone,  Patras,  the  Cyclades,  Spo- 
rades,  and  many  other  isles  of  the  Archipelago  and  Adriatic, 
and  a  long  line  of  ports,  skirting  all  the  shores  of  the  em- 
pire. The  illustrious  Dandolo,  as  the  close  of  his  splendid 
toils,  and  in  honourable  completion  of  the  original  treaty, 
was  permitted  to  tinge  his  buskins  with  the  purple  hue  dis- 
tinctive of  the  imperial  family,  to  claim  exemption  from  all 


« 


130 


DISCONTENT  OF  THE  GREEKS. 


feudal  service  to  the  emperor,  and  to  annex  to  the  title  of 
Doge  of  Venice,  the  proud  style  of  despot  of  Romania, 

AND    lord    01'     one-fourth    AND    ONE-EIGHTH    OF    THE    Ro- 

MAN  Empire. 


CHAPTER  IV. 


FROM    A.  D.   1204   TO    A.  D.  1259. 

Fateof  Mourtaouphlus— The  Bulgarians  invade  the  Empire— Defeat  and 
Capture  of  the  Emperor  Baldwin— Death  of  Enrico  Daiidolo— The 
pseudo-Baldwin— Policy  of  Venice  respecting  her  Eastern  Acquisitions 
—First  written  Code  of  Venetian  Law— War  with  Eccellmo  Roindi;o. 


A.  D. 

DOGES. 
Enrico  Dandolo. 

1205. 

XLIV. 

PiETRo  ZiANi — abdicates. 

1228. 

XI.V. 

GiACOMO  Th  IE  POLO — abdicates. 

1249. 

XLVI. 

Marino  Morosini. 

1252. 

XLVII. 

Raimero  Zeno. 

At  the  dazzling  and  triumphant  epoch  which  we  have  just 
quitted,  and  upon  which  we  have  linorered  with  unwilling- 
ness to  break  away,  how  gladly  should  we  close  all  notice 
of  that  portion  of  Byzantine  history  in  which  the  Latins 
continiie  to  occupy  the  foreground  !  The  little  which  re- 
mains incidental  to  our  leading  narrative  is  of  another  and 
most  painful  character,  replete  with  disaster  and  dishonour. 

As  soon  as  the  Greeks  scattered  over  the  wide  provinces  of 
their  dismembered  empire  began  to  recover  from  their  panic, 
they  regarded,  with  surprise  and  shame,  the  inconsiderable 
band  which  had  changed  their  dynasty.  In  the  short 
period  of  a  year,  they  discovered  that  the'loss  of  the  capital 
was  not  the  loss  of  the  whole  country ;  that  twenty  thou- 
sand men,  even  if  combined,  could  little  hope  to  subdue  the 
immeasurable  tracts  which  they  had  already  partitioned ; 
and  that  mutual  jealousy  resulting  from  ill-defined  power 
was  beginning  to  create  dissension  among  those  whose 
very  existence  depended  upon  their  union.    The  emperor 


HORRIBLE  DEATH  OF  MOURTZOUPHLUS.   131 

Rnd  the  King  of  Thessalonica  had  all  but  appealed  to 
arms  ;  and,  had  it  not  been  for  the  prudent  mediation  of 
Villehardouin  and  the  reverence  attached  to  the  age  and 
the  wisdom  of  Dandolo,  those  swords  which  had  jointly 
achieved  the  most  chivalrous  exploit  of  history,  would 
have  been  bared  against  each  other.  The  chief  peril  of 
the  Latins  did  not  arise  from  either  of  the  deposed  princes 
who  had  worn  the  imperial  crown.  Both  of  these  were  still 
fugitives  ;  but  Alexius  had  collected  the  more  considerable 
force,  and  was  encamped  with  his  adherents  at  Messino- 
ple.  His  daughter  Eudocia,  during  the  short  reign  of 
Mourtzouphlus,  had  accepted  the  hand  of  that  usurper,  per- 
haps upon  compulsion  ;  for  he  was  already  married,  and 
divorced  his  former  wife  in  order  to  fonn  this  new  alliance, 
which  he  fancied  might  strengthen  his  title  to  the  throne. 
Chased  by  Baldwin  from  Adrianople,  Mourtzouphlus  ap- 
plied to  his  father-in-law  for  protection  ;  promising  him 
allegiance,  and  tendering  the  resignation  of  his  own  claims 
upon  the  imperial  title.  Alexius,  burning  with  resentment, 
both  for  the  invasion  of  his  throne  and  the  dishonour  of  his 
daughter,  received  these  offers  with  a  feigned  approval. 
He  invited  Mourtzouphlus  to  his  camp,  prepared  for  him  a 
magnificent  entertainment,  and  promised  to  ratify  the  yet 
doubtful  marriage.  The  unsuspecting  victim  was  indulg- 
ing in  the  luxury  of  the  bath,  when  he  was  dragged  to  an 
inner  chamber  by  command  of  Alexius,  and  there,  in  the 
presence  of  Eudocia,  and  in  defiance,  it  is  said,  of  her  tears 
and  remonstrances,  his  eyes  were  torn  from  his  head,  and 
he  was  turned  out  a  sightless  wanderer.  Before  many  days, 
he  fell  into  the  hands  of  the  Latins,  and  was  sent  prisoner 
to  Constantinople.  There,  being  arraigned  for  the  murder 
of  the  young  Alexius,  he  pleaded  that  he  had  only  put  to 
deatJi  the  betrayer  of  his  country,  to  whose  punishment  the 
whole  imperial  family  consented.  With  more  abhorrence 
for  the  crime  than  regard  to  justice,  the  Latin  tribunal,  to 
whose  jurisdiction  the  wretched  culprit  could  scarcely  be 
deemed  amenable,  condemned  him  to  death  ;  and  to  mark 
the  deep  sense  entertained  of  his  enormity,  this  punishment 
was  inflicted  by  a  mode  almost   unexampled  in  horror.* 

*  Durange,  however   (Obs.  siir  Villehnrdouin,  ^  clxiii.),  gives  some 
instances  of  similar  executions  m  France,  during  the  reign  of  Louis  VO. 


i 


132 


PILLAR  OF  ARCADIUS. 


In  the  forum  of  Taurus,  Arcadius  had  erected  a  marble 
column,  on  which  in  spiral  bassi  rilievi  (like  those  which 
decorate  the  pillars  of  Trajan  and  Antonine  at  Rome)  were 
represented  his  own  victories,  or  those  of  his  father  Theo- 
dosius.  The  base  only  now  exists,  for  the  shaft,  having 
become  ruinous,  was  taken  down  towards  the  close  of  tho 
seventeenth  century  ;  but  in  its  original  height  it  towered  to 
one  hundred  and  forty-seven  feet.  Dragged  up  the  inter- 
nal staircase  to  the  summit  of  this  column,  the  miserable 
criminal  was  exposed  to  the  gaze  of  a  countless  multitude 
thronging  round  its  pedestal.  His  recent  privation  of  sight 
spared  him,  indeed,  the  terrors  of  the  dizzy  height,  and  the 
fierce  glances  of  pitiless  spectators,  but  their  exulting  shouts 
might  ring  fearfully  in  his  ears,  before  he  was  hurled  down 
and  dashed  to  atoms  on  the  pavement  below.  The  super- 
stition of  the  Greeks  dignified  this  event  with  abundant 
prodigies.  Fifty  years  before  the  invasion  of  the  Latins, 
Tzetzes  had  related  the  dream  of  a  matron  who  saw  an 
army  in  the  forum,  and  a  man  sitting  on  this  column,  clap- 
ping his  hands  and  uttering  a  loud  exclamation.*  One 
group  on  the  pillar  itself  is  said  to  have  represented  the 
storming  of  a  city  from  the  beach,  and  an  image  with  a 
crowned  head  falling  from  a  lofty  height. f  Villehardouin 
adds  a  third  "  miracle,"  which  may  be  no  more  than  a 
variation  of  the  second  ;  for  the  brave  knight  is  not  very 
likely  to  have  regarded  too  critically  the  "  goodly  sculpture" 
with  which  he  tells  us  the  column  was  adorned.  "  It  bore," 
he  says,  "  many  statues  of  marble,  and  among  them  that 
of  an  emperor.  This  statue  had  fallen  down  ;  hence  it 
had  been  predicted  that  an  emperor  of  Constantinople 
should  be  thrown  from  the  column,  and  thus  the  prophecy 
was  accomplished."  After  the  capture  of  Constantinople 
by  the  Turks,  in  1453,  Gentili  Bellini,  a  Venetian  artist, 
was  permitted  to  make  drawings  of  the  sculpture  on  this 
column  as  they  then  existed  ;  from  these  drawings,  pre- 
served in  the  Royal  Academy  of  Painting  at.  Paris,  they 
were  engraved  by  Menestrier,  and  afterward  by  Bandurus 
in  his  Iniperium  Oricntale.  But  no  figure  of  a  falling  man 
is  given  by  either  of  these  artists.  Alexius  himself,  after 
his  vengeance  upon  his  rival  had  been  satiated,  though  he 

*  Chiliad,  ix.  277,  as  cited  by  Ducange,  Obs.  sur  Villehardouin,  ^  clxiii. 
t  Ramusio,  lib.  iv.  p.  174. 


BULGARIAN  INVASION. 


133 


escaped  with  life,  did  not  long  retain  his  freedom.  He  was 
taken  by  the  King  of  Thessalonica,  who  sent  his  imperial 
robes,  the  calyptray  and  the  purple  buskins,  as  offerings  to 
the  emperor,  and  transferred  his  captive  to  a  prison  at  Mont- 
ferrat. 

The  establishment  of  an  independent  kingdom  in  Bul- 
garia, during  the  first  portion  of  the  feeble  reign 
of  Isaac  Angelus,  has  been  already  noticed.  The  ^'J^J 
fierce  chief  Joannice,  or  Calo  Johannes,  who  sue-  ^'*""* 
ceeded  to  that  crown,  had  obtained  his  recognition  by  Pope 
Innocent ;  and,  perhaps,  regarded  with  a  jealous  eye  the 
overthrow  of  the  empire  by  any  other  hand  than  his  own. 
The  Greeks,  therefore,  found  in  him  secret  encouragement 
and  support ;  but,  for  a  while,  he  dissembled  his  ulterior  in- 
tentions, and  even  the  deep  indignation  which  he  must 
have  felt  in  the  haughty  reception  of  his  ambassadors  by 
the  new  emperor ;  when,  far  from  ailmitting  his  claims  to 
sovereignty  and  fraternity,  Baldwin  treated  him  as  a  revolted 
vassal,  and  spoke  of  submission  as  the  necessary  prelude  to 
forgiveness.  It  was  not  until  the  Latin  troops  had  spread 
themselves  over  the  remoter  provinces,  in  order  to  obtain 
knowledge  and  to  seek  possession  of  their  nominal  con- 
quests, that  the  Bulgarian  prince  avowed  his  open  enmity  ; 
but  when  the  flower  of  the  army  followed  Henry,  the  brother 
of  the  emperor,  into  Asia,  Joannice  took  the  field.  The 
Greeks  at  the  same  moment  rose  in  arms  ;  and  in  almost 
every  town  from  Mount  Hsemus  to  the  Hellespont,  the 
Latins  were  overpowered,  and  either  fell  beneath  the  dag- 
gers of  the  insurgents  or  gained  safety  only  by  flight.  The 
Venetians  were  chased  from  Adrianople,  their  single  inland 
establishment ;  and  that  important  bulwark  and  key  of  the 
capital  was  garrisoned  by  unnumbered  Greeks,  and  pro- 
tected in  its  approaches  by  a  formidable  horde  of  Barbarians. 
Joannice  had  summoned  to  his  banners  a  Tartar  tribe,  and 
the  irregular  warfare  of  fourteen  thousand  Comans  was 
destined  to  baffle  the  tactics  of  European  chivalry. 

Baldwin  had  been  visited  by  the  heaviest  domestic  afflic- 
tion ;  his  countess,  Mary  of  Champagne,  whom  he  tenderly 
loved,  and  who  was  worthy  of  her  lord,  had  died  at  Acre  ; 
from  which  city  she  was  preparing  to  join  her  husband,  in 
order  to  partake  his  new  dignities.  Aroused  from  his 
grief  by  the  unwelcome  tidings  of  the  revolt  of  the  Greeks, 

Vol.  I. — M 


i! 


134 


THE  COMANS. 


the  emperor  hastpned,  after  performing  her  funeral  obse- 
quies in  Sta.  Sophia,  to  suppress  the  insurrection  ;  and  too 
impatient  to  await  the  arrival  of  his  brother,  whom  he  had 
recalled  from  his  Asiatic  expedition,  he  pressed  forward  with 
not  more  than  sevenscore  lances,  about  seven  hundred  men, 
to  Adrianople,  and  there  united  himself  with  a  somewhat 
more  numerous  body.  The  banners  of  Joannice  floated  on 
the  towers  of  that  city,  and  so  inadequate  was  the  small 
handful  of  Latins  to  attempt  its  siege,  that  they  lay  before 
it  for  three  days,  to  use  the  simple  and  expressive  words 
of  Villehardouin,  in  great  perplexity,  and  in  numbers  wofiilly 
small.  The  arrival  of  Dandolo  and  his  Venetians  doubled 
their  force  ;  but  they  were  pressed  for  forage,  they  were 
still  too  few  for  an  assault,  and  the  King  of  Bulgaria  with 
his  ferocious  Comans  was  known  to  be  on  his  march  to  the 
relief  of  the  city.  Imagination  busily  enhanced  the  savage 
manners  of  these  Scythian  foes,  few  of  whom  had  as  yet 
embraced  even  Mohammedanism  ;  the  great  mass  were  still 
Pagans,  and  it  was  affirmed  of  all,  that  they  sacrificed  their 
prisoners  and  drank  human  blood. 

Not  many  days  elapsed  before  their  powers  were  tried ; 
their  skirmishers  pushed  on  to  the  very  camp  ;  and,  lightly 
armed  and  fleetly  mounted,  by  a  seeming  retreat  they  drew 
on  and  wearied  the  heavy  cavalry  opposed  to  them.  Horse 
and  man  with  the  crusaders  were  alike  cased  in  iron,  and 
their  onset,  on  that  account,  was  irresistible  ;  but,  as  the 
combat  became  prolonged,  the  very  weight  wTiich  at  first 
overwhelmed  their  enemies,  in  the  end  exhausted  them- 
selves. After  an  unavailing  chase  for  a  full  league,  they 
prepared  to  return,  when  the  Comans  unexpectedly  wheeled 
round,  and  having  killed  and  wounded  great  numbers  by  a 
brisk  charge  and  a  heavy  volley  of  javelins,  they  again  scat- 
tered themselves  and  disappeared  unharmed. 

A  strict  order  was  issued  through  the  Latin  host  that,  for 
the  future,  no  horseman  should  quit  his  ranks,  whatever 
might  be  the  provocation.  On  the  following  morning,  it 
was  the  Thursday  after  Easter,  the  Comans,  shortly  after 
dawn,  renewed  their  attack,  and  rode  up  to  the  pavilions. 
The  pilgrims  had  just  risen  from  mass,  and,  at  the  cry  of 
the  sentinels  to  arms,  each  division  marched  out  of  the  camp, 
and  took  up  its  position  with  perfect  regularity.  The  van 
was  commanded  by  the  Count  of  Blois,  who,  unable  to 


DEFEAT  AND  CAPTURE  OF  BALDWIN  I.    135 

endure  the  galling  attacks  and  taunting  challenges  of  the 
Comans,  forgot  the  lesson  of  the  day  before,  and  the  com- 
mand to  which  it  had  given  birth  ;  and,  calling  upon  the 
emperor  for  support,  dashed  forward  at  full  speed,  chasing 
the  flying  swarms  for  more  than  two  leagues,  sword  in 

hand. 

The  consequences  of  this  rash  and  headlong  daring  were 
most  fatal ;  for,  entangled  in  a  morass,  and  hemmed  in  by 
superior  numbers,  such  as  were  unable  or  unwilling  to  fly 
fell  an  easy  sacrifice  to  the  Barbarians.  The  Count  of  Blois, 
the  unhappy  cause  of  this  disaster,  was  twice  severely 
wounded,  and  at  last  thrown  upon  the  ground.  By  the  self- 
devotion  of  one  of  his  knights,  who  placed  him  on  his  own 
horse,  he  might  still  have  escaped,  but  he  vowed  by  God's 
grace  never  to  quit  the  field  nor  to  abandon  the  emperor  in 
his  necessity.  There  was  short  time  for  remonstrance,  and 
a  Coman  sword  quickly  terminated  the  debate.  Besides 
Count  Louis,  many  other  valiant  soldiers  were  among  the 
slain.  Baldwin  himself,  greatly  pressed,  still  rallied  his  fol- 
lowers, calling  to  them  that  he  was  determined  never  to  fly, 
and  conjuring  them  not  to  desert  him.  Those  who  were 
near  his  person  testified  that  belted  knight  never  fought  with 
greater  courage  than  the  emperor ;  but  his  valorous  efforts 
were  not  adequately  seconded  by  the  great  body  of  his 
retainers.  Many  of  them  are  openly  taxed  with  cowardice 
by  Villehardouin  ;  they  betook  themselves  to  precipitate 
flight,  and  the  defeat  became  general.  Amid  the  carnage 
around  him,  the  emperor  still  survived :  happy  for  him  would 
it  have  been  if  some  hostile  weapon  had  taken  his  life  on 
the  field  ;  but  he  was  reserved  for  a  far  more  bitter  fate,  and 
was  captured  alive. 

Neither  Dandolo  nor  Villehardouin  had  been  engaged 
beyond  the  camp  :  their  courage  cheered  the  terror-stricken 
fugitives  and  repulsed  their  pursuers  ;  and  their  skill  after- 
ward, in  a  ditficult  and  dangerous  retreat,  preserved  the 
remnant  of  their  fellow-soldiers.  By  night,  bearing  with 
them  all  their  people,  horse,  foot,  and  wounded,  they  endea- 
voured to  gain  Rodosto,  a  seaport  at  the  distance  of  three 
days'  march.  Durinjr  the  day,  they  halted  in  face  of  the 
superior  force  which  pursued,  but  which  was  unable  to  break 
their  rear-guard  commanded  by  the  marshal.  At  Rodosto, 
they  were  joined  by  Henry,  who  was  immediately  proclaimed 


if 


136 


DEATH  OF  ENRICO  DANDOLO. 


regent ;  and  though  Joannice  had  spread  his  Comans  even 
to  the  gates  of  Constantinople,  the  Latins  were  now  in 
sufficient  numbers  to  venture  upon  regaining  it.  It  wa» 
ahuost  their  single  possession;  for  of  the  great  empire 
which  they  had  so  recently  acquired,  nothing  remained 
under  their  government  without  the  walls  of  the  capital  but 
Rodosto  and  Selymbria.  All  Romania  owned  the  authority 
of  Joannice  ;  and  beyond  the  Bosphorus,  the  whole  of  Asia, 
except  the  castle  of  Piga,  had  submitted  to  Theodore 
Lascaris. 

A  new  misfortune  awaited  the  pilgrims  on  their  return ; 
Dandolo,  worn  with  years  and  toil,  and  chilled,  as  may  rea- 
dily be  supposed,  by  the  dark  mists  now  gathering  over  his 
late  unclouded  glory,  expired,  after  a  short  illness,  about  the 
beginning  of  June,  in  his  ninety-eighth  year.     His  remain* 
were  interred  with  splendid  solemnities,  in  the  vestibule  of 
Sta.  Sophia,  where  a  marble  sarcophagus,  adorned  with  the 
emblems  of  St.  Mark  and  the  ducal  insignia,  denoted  the 
spot  of  his  repose.     On  the  capture  of  Constantinople  by 
the  Turks,  in  1453,  this  monument  was  destroyed;  but 
some  personal  memorials  of  her  greatest  prince  were  re- 
stored to  Venice,  at  the  intercession  of  Bellini  the  painter, 
whom  we  have  before  mentioned,  at  that  time  in  favour 
with  Mohammed  II. ;  and  the  spurs,  cuirass,  helmet,  and 
sword  of  the  hero  were  presented  to  his  descendants.    The 
character  of  this  distinguished  statesman  and  warrior  is  to 
be  learned  most  surely  from  his  actions,  and  these  are  of 
the  noblest  class.     He  appears  to  have  possessed  a  rare 
union  of  mental  and  bodily  vigour,  of  moral  and  physical 
courage,  of  military  skill  and  political  sagacity.     It  caimot 
surprise  us  that  the  wisdom  which  so  distinctly  foresaw, 
60  discreetly  planned,   and   so  dexterously  executed    the 
great  measures  which  exalted  his  country  to  a  height  of  un- 
paralleled aggrandizement,  should  be  stigmatized  as  craft 
and  cunning  by  those  at  whose  expense  she  was  elevated ; 
and  not  the  lowest  nor  least  assured  testimony  of  Dandolo'8 
eminent  merits  is  to  be  derived  from  the  charges  of  astute- 
ness, arrogance,  and  ambition,  to  which  Nicetas  is  compelled 
to  limit  his  accusations. 

In  person,  Dandolo  is  described  to  have  been  of  a  ruddy 
countenance  and  lofty  stature  ;  his  blue  eyes,  though  retain- 
ing little  vision,  were  not  disfigured ;   and  his  mien  was 


FATE  OF  BALDWIN  I. 


137 


dignified  and  commanding.  At  his  death,  two  sons  survived 
him  ;  and  both  were  honourably  distinguished.  Raniero 
administered  the  regency  of  Venice  during  his  father's 
absence,  and  was  afterward  nominated  to  the  high  office  of 
procuratore  of  St.  Mark:  Fantino  became  second  Latin 
patriarch  of  Constantinople.  The  family  long  remained 
one  of  the  most  illustrious  in  the  republic,  and  among  its 
members  are  numbered  many  succeeding  doges.  One  of 
these,  Andrea  Dandolo,*  is  the  earliest  chronicler  of  his 
native  country  ;  and  it  is  fortunate  for  him  that  his  reputa- 
tion is  built  upon  a  securer  base  than  the  meager,  phleo-- 
matic,  and  unimpassioncd  narrative  which  has  descended 
to  us  from  his  pen. 

With  the  close  of  Dandolo's  bright  career  we  may  change 
our  scene,  and  revert  once  again  to  the  Lagune^  from 
which  we  have  been  so  long  absent  ;  but  before  we  part 
from  the  Latin  empire  of  Constantinople,  the  little  which 
is  known  of  the  sad  fate  of  its  first  sovereign  requires  some 
brief  notice.  The  release  of  Baldwin  was  demanded  from 
Joannice  by  Pope  Innocent ;  and  the  Barbarian  contented 
himself  by  replying  that  his  illustrious  captive  had  died  in 
prison.  More  than  one  version  of  his  catastrophe  has  been 
given,  and  each  abounds  in  horror.  Nicetas  states,  that, 
after  long  confinement,  the  Bulgarian  cut  oft'  his  arms  and 
legs,  and  exposed  him  to  wild  beasts.  Acropolita  adds  that 
his  scull,  set  in  gold,  was  used  by  the  tyrant  as  a  goblet. 
A  yet  more  romantic  tale  attributes  the  Bulgarian's  ven- 
geance to  jealousy,  excited  by  his  queen  ;  who,  becoming 
enamoured  of  the  prisoner,  offered  him  herself  and  free*^ 
dom  as  the  price  of  his  love.  The  examples  of  Bellerophon 
and  Hippolytus  were  unknown  or  unregarded  by  the  dis- 
dainful Baldwin;  and  the  disappointed  fair,  incensed  at  his 
cold  rejection,  falsely  denounced  him  to  her  husband  ;  who, 
in  a  paroxysm  of  fury,  heightened  by  intoxication,  slew  him 
and  cast  his  body  to  the  dogs.  The  circumstances  attendant 
upon  his  death,  no  doubt,  are  obscure  ;  but  the  fact  itself  is 
supported  by  strong  evidence  :  it  was  accredited,  though  far 
from  hastily,  by  the  barons  ;  and  it  is  not  easy  to  assign 
any  reason  why  Joannice  should  assert  it,  if  it  had  been 
untrue.     Nevertheless  at  the  expiration  of  twenty  years, 

♦  Doge  in  1343. 
M2 


Is 


(I 


138 


THE  PSEUDO-BALDWIN. 


1 


when  the  sovereignty  of  Flanders  and  Hainault  had  devolved 
on  Jean,  the  eldest  daughter  of  the  supposed  deceased  prince, 
a  claimant  appeared,  asserting  his  identity  with  the  lost 
Baldwin.  He  maintained,  that  after  his  capture  at  Adria- 
nople,  he  had  been  mildly  treated  by  his  conquerors ;  till, 
having  effected  his  escape  from  them,  he  fell  into  the  hands 
of  another  tribe  of  Barbarians,  to  whom  his  rank  was 
unknown,  and  who  sold  him  as  a  slave  into  Syria.  There 
accident  enabled  him  to  discover  himself  to  some  German 
merchants,  who  ransomed  him  at  a  small  price  ;  and  as  the 
throne  of  Constantinople,  by  the  death  of  his  brother,  had 
then  passed  into  another  line,  the  recovery  of  his  hereditary 
dominions  appeared  to  him  an  easier  attempt  than  that  of 
his  Eastern  rights.  The  populace,  ever  credulous  of  wonders 
and  open-eared  to  novelty,  eagerly  devoured  this  tale,  which 
gained  admission  among  several  even  of  the  nobler  Flem- 
ings. It  was  rejected  altogether  by  the  reigning  countess ; 
who,  finding  herself  endangered  by  the  pretender,  claimed 
and  received  protection  from  Louis  VIII.  of  France.  The 
king  in  person  examined  the  nominal  emperor ;  and  though 
convinced  of  his  imposture,  in  consideration  of  a  safe-con^ 
duct  which  he  had  previously  granted,  contented  himself 
by  ordering  him  to  quit  his  dominions.  Detected  in  his 
fraud  and  abandoned  by  his  former  adherents,  the  pseudo- 
Baldwin  nevertheless  renewed  his  projects  ;  till,  having 
been  betrayed  into  the  hands  of  the  countess,  he  is  said  to 
have  confessed,  under  torture,  that  he  was  a  Champagner, 
named  Bertrand  de  Rayns.  He  was  exhibited  a  while  to 
public  scorn  in  the  chief  towns  of  the  Netherlands,  and 
then  ignominiously  hanged  at  Lille.  Little  doubt  can  exist 
of  the  justice  of  his  fate  ;  yet  such  is  the  fondness  of  the 
human  mind  for  mystery,  so  pertinaciously,  in  despite  of 
truth,  does  it  cling  to  the  marvellous,  that  there  have  not 
been  wanting  writers  who  prefer  to  believe  the  countess 
Jean  guUty  of  an  atrocious  parricide,  rather  than  to  admit  that 
an  adroit  knave  practised  a  daring  but  not  very  difficult  im- 
posture.* 

*  In  the  short  account  which  Matthew  Paris  (ad  ann.  1224,  p.  320) 
Rives  of  this  impostor,  although  admitting  the  truth  of  his  claim,  he 
taxes  him  with  the  treacherous  murder  of  an  Eastern  damsel,  through 
■whose  kind  offices  he  had  escaped  from  captivity,  and  whom  he  had 
promised  in  retuin  to  baptize  and  marry.    The  pope  enjoined  a  heavy 


DISPOSAL  OF  THE  VENETIAN  CONQUESTS.       139 

But  to  return  to  Venice. — The  long  absence  of  Enrico 
Dandolo  from  his  capital  gave  birth  to  some  new  institutions 
on  his  demise.  A  commission  of  five  members,  correttori 
della  promission  ducale^  was  appointed  to  inquire  into  such 
abuses  as  might  have  crept  into  the  government ;  and  by 
reviewing  the  inauguratory  oath  of  the  doge,  to  omit  or  add 
from  time  to  time,  at  the  pleasure  of  the  great  council,  such 
clauses  as  might  be  deemed  necessary  for  the  preservation 
of  the  honour  and  liberties  of  the  state.  But  a  far  more 
remarkable  magistracy  was  composed  of  three  inquisitori 
del  doge  defunto.  They  formed  a  board,  from  which,  what- 
ever might  be  the  case  with  his  successors,  the  memory  of 
Dandolo  had  little  cause  for  fear.  Their  duty  was  to  ex- 
amine the  administration  of  the  deceased  prince,  to  compare 
his  acts  with  the  provisions  of  his  oath,  to  receive  and 
inquire  into  depositions  against  him,  and,  if  charges  were 
satisfactorily  estabhshed,  to  condemn  his  heirs  to  make 
reparation.  The  student  of  antiquity  will  call  to  mind  a 
similar  custom  which  prevailed  among  the  Egyptians,  who, 
before  the  admission  of  their  dead  to  the  rites  of  sepulture, 
■examined  their  past  lives  by  a  solemn  trial.* 

Pietro  Ziani  was  elected  doge.     It  is  not  easy  to  pass  at 
once  from  the  glowing  narrative  which  we  have  just  termi- 
nated to  events  of  tamer  character ;  and  we  may  be  per- 
mitted to  hasten  with  rapid  strides  over  an  unimportant 
period.     At  an  early  part  of  the  new  reign,  the 
Venetians  perceived  that  the  wide  extent  of  their    y^M 
distant  acquisitions  would  produce  weakness  rather 
than  strength  ;  and  that  their  scanty  native  population  was 
ill  calculated  to  retain  in  subjection  a  tithe  of  their  great 
foreign    conquests.      With   true   wisdom,    therefore,  they 
iletermined  to  abandon  them  as  strictly  national  dominions ; 
and  they  granted  possession  of  their  nominal  territories  to 
such  citizens  as  would  complete  their  subjugation  at  their 
own  cost,  and  hold  them  as  fiefs  under  the  republic.    Hence 
arose  more  than  one  petty  dutchy  and  principality  on  the 

penance,  not  for  the  murder,  but  for  the  uncanonical  omission  of  baptism 
i)efore  its  perpetration.  All  the  misfortunes  which  followed  are  regarded 
by  the  good  monk  as  judgments ;  and  as  a  consummation  of  disgrace, 
the  emperor  was  hanged  between  duos  canes  veteres,  scilicet  mirgos — 
(Or  rather  mergos,  as  Ducange  corrects  the  word— water-dogs. 
:*  DiJdonis  Siculus,  i.  92. 


V      J. 


If! 


.  * 


(ftil 


W 


!) 


140 


PROPOSED   EMIGRATION. 


ECCELLINO    ROMANO. 


141 


coasts  of  the  empire  and  in  the  Archipelago  ;  and  we  read, 
among  many  others,  of  the  Sanudi  as  Princes  of  Naxos, 
during  a  course  of  four  centuries,  and  of  Navagiero  as 
Grand  Duke  of  Lemnos.     The  quarter  of  Constantinople 
which  had  fallen  to  the  Venetian  share  was  governed  by  a 
vodestd,  and  the  Ionian  Islands  and  Candia  were  the  only 
recent  acquisitions  reserved  as  dependencies  on  the  state. 
The  latter  was  a  source  of  perpetual  trouble,  and  continued 
in  revolt  during  the  major  part  of  the  reigns  of  Ziani  and 
his  successor.     Yet,  if  we  may  believe  the  MS.  chronicles 
of  Barbaro  and  Savina,  a  project  of  general  emigration  to 
the  East  was  at  one  time  contemplated.     Ziani  is 
■*' "'     said,  during  the  troubled  reign  of  the  second  Courte- 
^^^^'    nay,  to  have  convoked  the  great  council  and  all  the 
chief  functionaries  of  state ;  and  after  pointing  out  the 
precarious  condition  of  the  empire  under  its  existing  feeble 
and  divided  rulers,  to  have  proposed  the  abandonment  of 
Venice,  and  the  transfer  of  her  whole  population  to  Con- 
stantinople.   The  brilliant  prospects  which  he  displayed  as 
likely  to  result  from  this  important  change  dazzled  many  in 
the  assembly  ;  and  it  is  added,  that  notwithstanding  an 
eloquent  and  impassioned  appeal  to  their  affections  and 
their  patriotism  by  the  procuratore  Angelo  Faliero,  the  pro- 
posal was  negatived,  in  the  division  which  ensued,  but  by  a 
single  voice,  which  was  not  unaptly  tenned  "  The  voice  of 
Providence."     How  wide  a  field  of  speculation  does  this 
now  scarcely  remembered  incident  open  to  our  view  !    What 
changes  in  the  history  of  mankind  might  not  the  adoption 
of  Ziani's  project  have  occasioned  !     Would  the  existence 
of  the  Latin  empire  have  been  protracted  by  it  1     Would 
the  conquests  of  the  Turks  have  been  diverted  into  another 
channel  ]     Would  Christianity,  instead  of  Mohammedan- 
ism, have  been  the  dominant  religion  of  the  East  ]     Com- 
pared with  these  far  mightier  questions,  the  fate  of  Venice 
herself  is  disregarded;  and  we  almost  forget  to  inquire 
what    would    have    been    the    fortunes    of   her  deserted 

islands. 

The  reign  of  Giacomo  Thiepolo  was  distinguished  by 

repeated  victories  obtained  over  the  fleets  of  John 

i^ooD     Vataces,  the  son-in-law  and  successor  of  Theodore 

^^^      Lascaris,  who  had  raised  the  principality  of  Nice  to 

the  dignity  of  an  empire.     Thiepolo  was  the  first  doge  who 


Tindertook  the  construction  of  a  systematic  civil  code ;  and 
with  the  assistance  of  four  coadjutors,  within  a  century 
from  the  discovery  of  the  Pandects  at  Amalfi,  he  presented 
his  country  with  a  collection  of  written  institutes  of  law. 
These  Novelli  Statuti  Veneziani  relate  to  the  descent  of 
property,  the  recovery  of  debt,  and  the  punishment  of 
crimes.  It  is  not  a  little  remarkable,  that  in  a  code  framed 
for  the  greatest  existing  commercial  people  in  Europe,  no 
further  regulation  connected  with  trade  is  inserted  than  a 
few  directions  respecting  freights,  averages,  and  seamen's 
wages.  One  law,  however,  deserves  notice,  as  containing, 
perhaps,  the  earliest  instance  of  that  technical  language  of 
calculation  which  has  since  become  universal.  Hitherto, 
the  prevalent  usage  in  reckoning  fractions  had  been  to  say 
one-tenth,  one-twentieth,  &c.,  or  so  many  pennies  or  shil- 
lings in  the  pound.  A  more  judicious  form  of  calculating,  so 
much  per  cent.,  was  introduced  by  Thiepolo.  It  was  custom- 
ary for  purchasers  in  Venice  to  pay  down  a  certain  deposite  : 
this  was  directed  in  the  new  code  to  be  lodged  in  the 
custody  of  the  procurcUori  of  St.  Mark,  and  its  amount  was 
fixed,  not  at  two  shillings  in  the  pound,  but  at  ten  per  cent. 
(diese  per  cento).*  To  the  same  regard  for  the  internal 
benefit  of  his  people  may  be  traced  many  improvements  in 
the  capital  effected  during  the  reign  of  Thiepolo.  The 
piazza  of  St.  Mark  was  enlarged,  its  architecture 
received  embellishments,  and  a  canal  by  which  it  j^g 
was  deformed  was  filled  up.  About  the  same  time, 
also,  the  first  bridge  was  constructed  on  the  site  of  the 
much  celebrated  Rialto. 

Not  long  after  the  accession  of  Rainiero  Zeno,  the  cruel- 
ties of  Eccellino  Romano,  under  whom  the  north  of 
Italy  had  groaned  for  twenty  years,  with  slight  hopes       '^' 
of  deliverance,  roused  so  general  an  execration,  that 
the  first  act  of  Alexander  IV.  on  his  election  to  the  tiara 
was  to  renew  the  excommunication  fulminated  by  his  pre- 
decessor Innocent,  and  to  preach  a  crusade  against  this 
monster.     He  was  denounced,  in  terms  too  fnlly  justified 
by  the  long  catalogue  of  his  enormities,  as  a  son  of  perdi- 
tion, delighting  in  blood,  rejected  by  the  faith,  the  most 
inhuman  of  the  children  of  men,  and  a  violator  of  every 

*  MTherson's  Annals  of  Commerce,  I.  393. ' 


1 


IN 


/^j 


M 


■\ 


142 


ENORMITIES  OF  ECCELLINO. 


A.  D. 

1235. 
ence. 


law  of  society  and  of  the  Gospel.*  This  tyrant,  sprung 
from  an  ignoble  stock,  whose  grandfather  had  entered  Italy 
as  a  poor  "soldier  in  the  train  of  the  third  Otho,  by  his  'rare 
prudence  and  consummate  bravery,  qualities  too  often  abused 
to  purposes  of  ill,  had  attracted  the  notice  and  favour  of 
Frederic  II.  The  March  of  Treviso,  and  the  line  of  coun- 
try between  Verona  and  Padua,  had  been  early 
intrusted  to  his  vigilance  ;  and  as  podestd  of  the 
latter  city  he  acquired  no  small  accession  of  influ- 
Cremona,  Parma,  Modena,  and  Reggio  allied  them- 
selves with  his  government,  and  thus  formed  under  his  guid- 
ance a  powerful  confederation  against  the  Lombard  league, 
which  rendered  him  most  important  to  the  GhibeUns,  and 
materially  increased  his  weight  with  the  emperor.  In  the 
fierce  contest  between  Frederic  and  Gregory  IX.,  every 
change  added  to  the  power  of  Eccellino  ;  and  throughout 
the  unhappy  territory  between  the  Trentine  Alps  and  the 
Oglio,  which  submitted  to  him  as  vicar  of  the  empire,  there 
was  no  town  in  which  his  despotism  was  not  recorded  in 

*  Eccellino  appears  to  havo  richly  deserved  the  utmost  severity  of 
language,  and  it  must  be  admitted  that  he  has  received  it.  The  writer 
of  the  Chronicon  Estense,  among  many  like  expressions,  terms  him,— 
Diaboli  caniifex,  potator  humarii  sanguinis,  sitibundus  inhnicus  Eccle- 
sicB,  HcBreticorum  re/ugium,  malititB  sedulus  adinventor.  (311)  insatia- 
bilis  homicida,  draco  vmenatus.  (320),  cujus  autem  artimam  infelicemy 
onustam  pondere  peccatorum,  dcBinones  absque  dubio  rapuerunt,  et  earn 
ill  prnfundum.  infenii,  ubi  est  tumulus  tormentorum  et  nulla  redemptio, 
projecerunt.  (329,  ap.  Muratori  Script.  It.  xv.)  What  is  not  often  the 
case,  the  facts  which  this  author  presents  fully  bear  out  the  bitterness 
of  his  words.  Every  lover  of  Italian  poetry  must  remember  the  grievous 
punishment  to  which  Dante  has  consigned  Eccellino. 

E  quellafronte  ch''  ha  7  pel  cost  nero 
E  Azzolino.  Infenio,  xii.  110. 

Or,  as  the  whole  passage  is  given  by  his  only  translator, — 

Onward  we  mov'd. 

The  faithful  escort  by  our  side,  along 

The  border  of  the  crimson-seethy  flood, 

Whence,  from  those  steep'd  within,  loud  shrieks  arose. 

Some  there  I  mark'd  as  high  as  to  the  brow 

Immers'd,  of  whom  the  mi'-'hty  Centaur  thus  : 

"  Those  are  the  souls  of  tyrants  who  were  iiiven 

To  blood  and  rapine.    Here  they  wail  aloud 

Their  merciless  wrongs.    Here  Ab^xander  dwells, 

And  Dionysiusfell,  vvTio  many  a  year 

Of  war  wrought  for  fair  Sicily.    That  brow 

Whereon  the  hair  so  jetty  clusi'ring  hangs 

Is  Aizolino."  Cary. 


CRUSADE  AGAINST  HIM. 


143 


characters  of  blood.  Fortunately,  the  course  of  our  history 
by  no  means  requires  that  we  should  detail  the  horrors  of 
his  rule,  which  are  to  be  found  so  abundantly  in  the  Italian 
chroniclers  ;  and  we  willingly  turn  from  accounts  of  the 
sufferings  of  those  illustrious  prisoners  who  were  con- 
demned to  die  by  the  lingering  pangs  of  famine,  of  the 
countless  victims  tortured,  mutilated,  buried  in  pestilential 
dungeons,  or  dragged  to  scaffolds  yet  dripping  with  the 
blood  of  yesterday,  which  crowd  their  pages.  The  death 
of  Frederic,  as  it  removed  the  sole  barrier  between  Eccellino 
and  independence,  so  it  increased  his  lust  for  slaughter ; 
and  when  the  axe  of  the  executioner  appeared  too  slow  for 
the  despatch  of  the  throngs  adjudged  by  him  to  perish, 
they  were  committed  to  the  indiscriminate  massacre  of  his 

soldiery. 

In  March,  125(5,  the  Archbishop  of  Ravenna,  as  legate 
of  the  holy  see,  commenced  preaching  at  Venice  a  crusade 
against  this  tyrant.  Indulgences  similar  to  those  gnmted 
to  the  pilgrims  of  the  holy  sepulchre  were  announced  as 
the  reward  of  all  who  should  take  the  cross  in  this  new  ser- 
vice ;  and  the  tranquillity  of  their  native  land,  the  honour 
of  the  church,  and  the  salvation  of  their  souls  were  the 
animating  motives  by  which  their  zeal  was  inflamed.  The 
proximity  of  Eccellino  to  their  own  dominions,  and  the 
danger  which  could  not  but  be  anticipated  from  his  rest- 
less\mbition,  induced  the  Venetians  to  enrol  themselves 
in  great  numbers  under  the  holy  banner.  Yet  more  to  en- 
courage the  ardour  which  had  been  thus  awakened  among 
them,  the  custody  of  that  banner  itself  was  intrusted  to  one 
of  their  nobles  ;  a  second  was  named  marshal  of  the  cru- 
sading army  ;  and  the  numerous  fugitives  from  Padua  who 
had  sought  refuge  in  the  Lagunc,  forgetful  of  all  former  na- 
tional jealousies,  gave  a  signal  proof  of  their  confidence  in 
the  republic  by  appointing  another  of  her  citizens  their 
own  podcsta.  Padua  was  won  with  little  difl^iculty  ;  for, 
by  a  singular  oversight,  the  very  precaution  which  the  general 
of  Eccellino  had  adopted  for  its  defence  materially  con- 
tributed to  its  reduction.  In  order  to  hinder  the  ascent  of 
the  Venetian  galleys,  he  turned  the  waters  of  the  Brenta 
into  a  new  channel,  and  by  their  diversion  removed  the  chief 
obstacle  against  the  march  of  the  mvading  army.  The  city 
was  stormed  and  pillaged,  during  seven  days,  by  its  pro- 


ll 


m 


I  I 


'U 


144 


MASSACRE  OF  THE  PADXIAN  TROOPS. 


fesseJ  friends.  The  prisons  were  thrown  open ;  from  each 
of  the  two  largest  three  hundred  captives  were  delivered, 
and  six  other  places  of  confinement  were  found  crowded 
with  miserable  objects  of  all  ages  and  either  sex,  curtailed 
of  some  limb,  deprived  of  sight,  or,  perhaps,  yet  more  bar- 
barously mutilated.  One  of  the  most  frightful  dungeons  of 
the  tyrant  was,  in  after-times,  dedicated  to  purposes  of 
science  ;  and  when  the  university  of  Padua,  already  distin- 
guished even  in  the  twelfth  century,  boasted,  under  the 
patronage  of  Venice,  no  less  than  eighteen  thousand  stu- 
dents, the  lofty  "  tower  of  Eccellino"  was  converted  into  an 
observatory.  Over  its  entrance  might  be  read  an  appro- 
priate inscription  : 

Qua  qiumdam.  infernos  turns  ducebat  ad  umbras 
Nunc  Venetum  auspicio  pandit  ad  astraviam.* 

Eccellino  received  the  news  of  this  loss  of  the  most  pow- 
erful city  in  his  dominions  with  unbounded  fury.  Eleven 
thousand  troops,  more  than  a  third  of  his  whole  army,  were 
natives  of  Padua  or  the  surrounding  towns  ;  and,  doubtful  of 
their  fidelity,  he  determined  to  place  it  beyond  all  hazard.  By 
a  forced  march  he  gained  Verona ;  and  there,  having  collected 
these  battalions  in  a  single  quarter  of  the  city,  and  previously 
disarmed  them,  he  demanded  that  they  should  voluntarily  sur- 
render that  portion  of  their  comrades  levied  in  the  particular 
district  of  Padua  which  had  been  first  lost  by  the  treachery,  a» 
he  averred,  of  the  garrison.  Rejoiced  that  the  tyrant's  rage 
had  centred  upon  a  part,  when  the  whole  believed  them- 
selves to  be  its  object,  the  deluded  men  willingly  obeyed* 
Another  and  another  like  demand  succeeded,  on  equally 
frivolous  pretences,  till  the  whole  band  melted  away  and 
was  distributed  through  his  various  prisons.  Hunger,  thirsty 
destitution,  cold,  despair,  or  the  scaffold,  from  time  to  time, 
diminished  their  numbers,  so  that  in  the  end,  out  of  eleven 
thousand  men,  the  flower  of  the  Paduan  territory,  little  more 
than  two  hundred  were  permitted  to  survive. 

The  courage  and  skill  of  Eccellino,  his  superior  general- 
ship in  the  field,  and  the  treacherous  arts  which  he  employed 
as  dexterously  as  his  arms,  prolonged  this  war  through  no 

*  Once  the  black  porch  of  hell's  infernal  tide, 
Now  to  the  stare,  while  Venice  rules,  I  guide. 


DEATH  OF  ECCELLINO. 


145 


less  than  three  years.  Much  of  this  delay  may  be  attributed 
to  want  of  discipline,  and  even  of  bravery,  in  the  troops  to 
whom  he  was  opposed,  and  to  the  ignorance  and  superstition 
of  the  priests  who  conducted  them.  More  than  once  the 
confederacy  was  exposed  to  the  risk  of  entire  dissolution  ; 
and,  for  a  while,  defeat  trod  closely  upon  defeat.  But  Eccel- 
lino's  faithlessness,  even  to  those  allies  whom  he  had  bound 
to  himself  by  interest  or  by  terror,  at  length  worked  his 
destruction.  Three  Ghibelin  chiefs,  each  of  whom  believed 
himself  to  be  in  his  separate  confidence,  by  mutual  revela- 
tions discovered  his  treachery  to  all.  Indignant  at  this  com- 
plicated perfidy,  they  made  overtures  to  the  league,  pledged 
themselves  to  pursue  the  traitor  to  extermination,  and 
solemnly  swore  that  no  decree  from  the  emperor,  no  dispen- 
sation from  the  pope,  should  release  them  from  this  oath 
till  its  purpose  was  accomplished.  Three  months  sufficed 
for  the  fulfilment  of  their  vow ;  and  the  enemy  against 
whom  it  was  directed  was  hunted  down,  abandoned 
by  his  troops,  wounded,  and  taken  prisoner.  He  re-  '^' 
fused  all  surgical  assistance,  tore  the  bandages  from 
his  bleeding  limbs,  and  thus  expired  almost  if  not  altogether 
by  his  own  hands. 
Vol.  I.— N 


1259. 


m 


MJ 


CHAPTER  V.  • 

FROM  A.  D.   1259    TO  A.  D.  1310. 

First  War  with  Genoa— The  Crown  of  Thorns— Fall  of  the  Latin  Em- 
pire—Truce—Change in  the  Election  of  a  Doge— Establishment  of 
the  Inquisition  at  Venice— Second  War  with  Genoa— Battle  of  Curzola 
— Marro  Polo— Battle  of  Gallipoli— Peace— Closing  of  the  Great  Coun- 
cil—Sketch  of  the  Venetian  Nobility— Conspiracy  of  Bocconio— Dispute 

with  Clement  V.  respecting  Ferrara— Papal  Interdict— Conspiracy  of 
Thiepolo— Institution  of  the  Council  of  X. 


A.  D. 

1268.  XLviii. 
1274.  xLix. 
1280.  L. 

1289.         LI. 


DOGES. 

Rainiero  Zeno. 
Lorenzo  Thiepolo. 
GiACOMO  CoNTARiNi — abdicates. 
Giovanni  Dandolo 

PlETRO  GraDINIGO. 


FIRST  WAR  WITH  GENOA. 


147 


The  succours  afforded  by  Venice  to  the  crusade  a^inst 
Eccellino  were  but  inconsiderable  ;  but  she  was  soon  about 
to  be  engaged  far  more  deeply  in  a  protracted  and  sanguinary 
struggle,  in  which  her  own  peculiar  interests  were  mainly 
conc'erned.  Of  the  few  powders  which  were  able  to  main- 
tain any  commercial  rivalry  with  her,  Genoa  was  now  the 
most  prominent.  Many  causes  tended  to  enhance  their 
mutual  jealousy  ;  and  the  seeds  of  bitterness  and  hatred 
were  deeply  imbedded  in  the  similarity  of  their  governments 
and  their  pursuits,  of  their  ambition  and  their  enterprise. 
The  exclusive  dominion  of  the  Adriatic,  which  was  asserted 
and  maintained  by  the  former  state,  was  balanced  by  that 
which  the  latter  considered  only  as  a  retributive  claim  upon 
the  Mediterranean  ;  and  it  was,  therefore,  with  very  natural 
alarm  that  the  Genoese  beheld  the  large  acquisitions  made 
by  their  rivals  during  the  last  half-century,  in  the  Morea 
and  Archipelago. 

But  a  single  spark  was  wanting  to  kindle  their  ill-con- 
cealed hostility  into  open  flame,  and  it  was  in  the  Levant 
that  the  train  thus  ripe   for   combustion  was    fired.      A 


trii!ing  dispute  on  a  point  of  honour  was  permitted  to  lead 
to  war  ;  and  this  war  in  its  progress  involved  no  less  a  con- 
sequence than  the  overthrow  of  the  Latin  empire.     Among 
the  very  few  possessions  still  remaining  to  the  Christians 
in  Palestine  was  the  long-contested  and  almost  impregna- 
ble city  of  Acre.     Within  its  walls  was  assembled  a  mot- 
ley throng  of  various  nations  :  the  Counts  of  Tripoli  and 
Edessa,  the  King  of  Jerusalem  himself,  Knights  Hospitallers 
and  Templars,  Pisans,  Venetians,   and  Genoese — all  who 
still  lingered  in  the  East  in  the  hope  of  recovering  dominion 
or  of  preserving  trade,  were  I'cre  established  in  their  own 
separate  quarters,  submitted  or.  y  to  their  own  national  juris- 
dictions, and  jealously  asserted  independence  on  each  other. 
The  right  to  the  church  of  Saint  Sabba,  which  had    ^gsg. 
not  been  very  precisely  appropriated,  was  claimed     ^  ^* 
both  by  the  Venetians  and  the  Genoese.     The  pope, 
when  appealed  to,  decided  for  the  former ;  the  latter,  in 
despite  of  this  arbitration,  by  a  far  more  summary  process, 
secured  possession  of  the  holy  building,  and  fortified  it. 
Then,  following  up  their  aggression,  and  supported  by  Philip 
de  Montfort,  the  governor,  they  attacked   and  pillaged  the 
magazines  of  the  Venetians,  and  drove  them  from  the  city. 
We  need  not  detail  nor  dwell  upon  the  particulars  of  two 
naval  combats  which  succeeded  this  outrage.     Tn  both  the 
Venetians  triumphed ;  they  burned  the  fleets  of  the  Genoese, 
chased  their  residents  in  turn  from  Acre,  and  off  Tyre  cap- 
tured twenty  galleys,  and   slew  more  than   two  thousand 
men.     But  the  most  singular  result  of  this  warfare  was 
seen  in  the  contradictory  alliances  to  which  it  gave  birth. 
Hitherto,  whatever  slight  part  the  Venetians  had  taken  in 
the  factions  of  Italy  annexed  them  to  the  Guelphs  ;  and 
their  inclination  towards  Rome  had  been  plainly  shown  in 
the  crusade  against  Eccellino.    In  the  present  instance,  the 
aid  of  Manfred  of  Sicily,  a  natural  son  of  Frederic  IL,  was 
the  most  valuable  which  they  could  receive  ;  for  his  coasts 
were  likely  to  afford  points  of  frequent  encounter  with  the 
Genoese,  whom  he  regarded  not  only  with  a  similar  mari- 
time jealousy  to  that  cherished  by  the  Venetians,  but  with 
yet  further  resentment  as  old  and  active  coadjutors  with 
his  papal  enemies.     To  his  friendship,  therefore,  Zeno  had 
recourse.     On  like  principles  of  mutual  hatred  against  a 
third  power,  and  of  mutual  agreement  to  forget  former 


i  f 

i 


i 


m 


M  ^   1 


..jgijUP;,,, 


148 


DISTRESS    OF   BALDWIN   II. 


injuries,  the  doge  concluded  with  Pisa,  for  ten  years,  a  treaty 

of  alliance  offensive  and  defensive.  A  far  more  un- 
T2fU.*    '^a^'i'''*^  union  was  formed  by  the  Genoese.     The 

sceptre  which  Theodore  Lascaris  had  grasped  at 
Nice,  during  the  convulsions  of  the  Greek  empire,  had  been 

greatly  strengthened  in  the  hand  of  his  son-in-law 
i"V99*  ^^^  successor,  John  Ducas  Vataces.  Even  the  vices 
Itit'  of  a  second  Theodore  do  not  appear  to  have  dimin- 
I2?q     *^^^^  ^^^^  power  ;  and  but  for  his  minority,  his  son 

John  Lascaris,  might  have  retained  his  hereditary 
throne.  By  one  of  those  revolutions  so  common  in  oriental 
history,  not  unaccompanied  with  treachery  and  bloodshed, 
Michael  Palseologus,  perhaps  the  most  illustrious,  certainly 
the  most  enterprising  of  the  Greek  nobles,  obtained  the 
guardianship,  and  afterward  the  crown,  of  the  young  prince. 
His  first  act  after  his  usurpation  was  the  invasion  of 
Thrace,  and  a  bold  attempt  upon  the  suburb  of  Galata  itself. 
In  this  he  failed  ;  but  it  needed  little  foresight  to  determine 
that  the  feeble  hands  which  now  ruled  the  Latin  govern- 
ment were  not  likely*  to  oppose  any  long  resistance  to  so 
active  and  ambitious  a  foe.  Of  the  six  emperors  who  had 
struggled  through  the  half-century  which  succeeded  the 
conquest  of  Constantinople,  the  second  Baldwin  was  by  far 
the  least  qualified  to  encounter  the  perils  which  surrounded 
him.  He  had  thrice  made  the  circuit  of  Europe  as  a  sup- 
pliant for  assistance,  and  he  now  returned  to  his  Eastern 
capital  impoverished  and  dishonoured.  It  is  unnecessary 
to  speak  of  the  countless  sordid  littlenesses  to  which  poverty 
reduced  him  ;  but  there  are  two  facts  partially  connected 
with  the  history  of  Venice  too  remarkable  to  be  omitted. 
Philip,  the  son  of  this  last  Latin  emperor  of  Constantinople, 
was  pawned  by  his  father  to  some  burghers  of  his  capital, 
as  the  only  security  which  they  would  accept  for  a  loan  in- 
commensurate with  the  pledge ;  and  the  prince  was  trans- 
ferred by  them  to  the  custody  of  some  Venetian  merchants,* 
for  greater  safety.  To  other  moneyed  usurers  of  Venice  waa 
intrusted  a  deposite,  which,  whatever  in  our  present  estima- 
tion may  be  its  genuineness  and  intrinsic  value,  was  con- 
sidered at  the  time  of  which  we  are  writing  as  beyond  all 
price.     The  frequency  of  imposture  has,  no  doubt,  attached 

*  Sanutus  (apud  Gesta  Dei  per  Francos)  Secreta  Fidel.  Cruc.  ii.  418. 


FALL    OF    THE    LATIN    EMPIRE. 


149 


much  both  of  ridicule  and  suspicion  to  the  generality  of 
relics  ;  and  the  silly  pretensions  to  miraculous  virtue  which 
have  be^n  asserted  for  them,  have  increased  these  unfavour- 
able impressions.  But  I  know  not  why  those  vivid  emo- 
tions, that  glow  of  affection,  that  veneration  and  love  with 
which  we  contemplate  other  monuments  of  wisdom  and  of 
virtue,  should  be  repressed  and  chilled  when  we  turn  to  like 
memorials  of  our  faith.  If  the  reputed  crown  of  thorns  was 
really  that  borne  by  our  Lord  during  his  sufferings,  or  (what 
in  the  present  instance  is  the  same  thing)  was  really  believed 
to  be  such,  the  piety  which  coveted  its  possession  demands 
not  our  sarcasm  but  our  re.'-pect.  On  the  credit  of  this 
treasure,  a  sum  amounting  to  about  7000Z.  of  our  money 
had  been  borrowed  by  the  empire  :  the  time  stipulated  for 
its  redemption  approached  ;  and  if  not  redeemed,  its  prop- 
erty would  become  absolutely  vested  in  Querini,  a  Vene- 
tian, who  had  advanced  the  loan.  Louis  of  France,  who 
has  been  canonized  for  his  devotion,  profited  by  the  oppor- 
tunity ;  and  after  an  agreement  with  Baldwin,  discharged 
the  debt  and  conveyed  the  relic  to  Paris.  The  Sainte 
Chapellc  was  built  and  consecrated  for  its  reception.  It 
was  jealously  guarded*  and  magnificently  enshrined  ;  and 
after  the  lapse  of  four  centuries,  on  one  of  those  occasions 
by  which,  as  a  corrective  to  human  pride,  the  weakness  of 
the  good  and  the  follies  of  the  wise  are  permitted  to  exhibit 
themselves  in  strong  light,  by  being  produced  as  a  voucher 
for  enthusiasm,  it  excited  the  surprise  and  curiosity,  the 
credulity  or  the  skepticism,  of  all  the  Christian  world. 

While  Baldwin,  reduced  to  this  destitution,  tottered  on 
his  throne,  the  fierce  spirit  of  the  Genoese  saw,  in  an  alli- 
ance with  Michael  Palaeologus,  a  hope  of  wreaking  ven- 
geance upon  their  detested  rival  ;  and,  careless  of  the 
means,  provided  Venice  were  depressed,  they  covenanted 
for  the  recapture  of  Constantinople.  The  treaty  exists  by 
which  they  bound  themselves  to  furnish  the  emperor  of 
Nice  with  a  certain  number  of  vessels  at  a  fixed  price  ;  the 
emperor,  in  return,  promising  them  immunity  from  tolls 
and  customs  in  all  his  ports.     That  catastrophe  which  the 

*  The  treasures  of  La  Sainte  ChapeUe.  before  the  French  revolution, 
were  exhibited  onl\'  en  vertu  de  lettres  de  cachet,  par  ordre  du  roy. 
The  miracle  asserted  to  have  been  wrought  on  Pascal's  niece  is  well 
known  to  everybody. 

N2 


■  H 


I 


W; 


150 


MICHAEL   PAL^OLOGUS. 


blind  passion  of  the  Genoese  prepared,  the  imprudence  of  i 
the  Venetians  completed.  The  chief  strength  of  th  3  gani-^ 
son  of  Constantinople,  the  only  French  and  Venetian  troops 
by  which  it  was  manned,  were  employed  by  the  podesta  of 
the  latter  nation  in  an  idle  expedition.  On  the  return  of 
their  fleet  from  an  unsuccessful  attempt  on  Daphnusia,  the 
Latin  empire  had  ceased  to  exist :  a  bold  coup  de 
I2fii'  ^^^^  h^^  placed  the  defenceless  capital  in  the  hands 
of  a  partisan  of  Michael,  and  the  Venetian  galleys 
arrived  but  in  time  to  afford  refuge  to  the  affrighted  Bald- 
win and  his  court.  \ 

On  the  entry  of  Michael  Palseologus  into  Constantinople, 
he  confirmed  the  privileges  for  which  the  Genoese  hL  J  stipu- 
lated ;  but  at  the  same  time,  wisely  considering  how  much 
of  the  wealth  of  his  restored  empire  must  depend  upon 
general  commerce,  he  encouraged  the  Pisan  and  Venetian 
merchants  to  remain  by  similar  grants.  The  Genoese,  be- 
ing likely  to  presume  upon  their  alliance,  were  removed  to 
Galata  ;  the  other  foreigners  were  permitted  to  dwell  within 
the  city.  To  each  nation  was  assigned  its  own  quarter ; 
and,  as  distinct  republics  within  the  empire,  they  enjoyed 
their  own  laws  and  submitted  to  their  own  governors.  That 
of  the  Venetians  is  henceforward  known  by  the  title  Bailo, 
Although  thus  far  protecting  her  civil  residents  in  his 
metropolis,  the  emperor  continued  his  warlike  operations 
against  Venice.  Negropont  was  attacked  ;  Scio,  Lemnos, 
and  Rhodes  were  conquered.  The  first  was  bestowed  as  a 
fief  upon  the  Genoese,  and  was  retained  by  them  for  three 
centuries.  Perhaps  the  Venetian  pride  was  still  more  deeply 
wounded  when  their  rivals  were  permitted  to  demolish  a 
palace  which  had  been  once  assigned  to  Venice  in  the 
capital  of  the  East,  and  to  transport  its  materials  to  their  own 
shores,  as  records  of  their  influence  and  their  implacability. 

The  bare  recital  of  the  naval  combats  which  succeeded 
between  the  Venetians  and  the  Genoese  would  be  a  tedious 
and  unprofitable  task.  Little  more  indeed  is  to  be  told  than 
that,  in  a  course  of  eight  years,  no  less  than  five  sanguinary 
battles  were  fought,  and  that  in  all  the  Venetians  triumphed. 
Whatever  valour  might  be  displayed,  whatever  glory  might 
be  won,  neither  permanent  benefit  to  themselves  nor  injury 
to  their  enemies  accrued  from  these  victories.  They  resem- 
bled our  own  naval  engagements  with  the  Dutch,  during 


■■■•  :j  !■  itu'jt.a 


TRUCE. 


151 


the  seventeenth  century,  in  which  the  vanquished  of  to-day 
was  prepared  to  renew  the  battle  almost  on  the  morrow, 
rather  than  those  mighty  triumphs  of  later  times,  which 
neither  needed  nor  permitted  frequent  repetition,  and  in 
which  Rodney  and  Nelson  swept  the  ocean  at  a  single  blow. 
We  pause  indeed  with  surprise  on  the  energy,  and,  if  we 
may  so  speak,  on  the  intense  vitality  of  the  Genoese.     An- 
tffius-like,  they  appear  to  have  been  overthrown  on  their 
peculiar  element,  only  to  acquire   new  strength  by  their 
fall.     Beaten  off  the  Morea,  they  were  still  able  to  insult 
their  conquerors  even  in  their  own  ports.     In  an 
engagement  under  the  heights  of  the  Sicilian  Tra-    Kofi's 
pani,  not  one  of  their  vessels  escaped  the  flames,  the 
flood,  or  the  enemy ;  yet,  notwithstanding  this  horrible  car- 
nage which  had  almost  exterminated  their  mariners,  and 
the  desertion  of  their  ally  Palaeologus,  who,  despair- 
ing of  their  cause,  had  signed  a  separate  truce  for    .  *  ^n 
live  years,  we  find  them,  in  the  following  campaign, 
disembarking  a  force  which  destroyed  the  Venetian  colony 
in  Candia  ;  and  again,  with  similar  bravery  but  former  ill 
fortune,  confronting  their  rival  on  the  coast  of  Tyre.     It 
was  not  till  the  project  of  a  fresh  crusade  rendered  a  mari- 
time peace  necessary  for  the  safe  transport  of  that  gallant 
and  devoted  band  which  St.  Louis  was  assembling  to  perish 
miserably  in  Africa,  that  the  competitors  would   listen  to 
accommodation.     And  even  then,  when   all  Christendom 
stepped  forward  to  arbitrate  their  quarrel,  and  the  seeming 
interests  of  religion  were  suspended  on  its  adjustment,  such 
was  the  bitterness  of  their  animosity,  that  peace  was 
rejected,  and  a  truce  for  a  few  years  was  all  that    ^Aoq 
could  be  forced  on  their  reluctant  acceptance. 

It  was  during  the  rage  of  much  intestine  commotion  in 
each  of  the  republics  that  this  war  was  waged.  The  revo- 
lutions of  Genoa  are  foreign  to  our  subject ;  and  it  must 
suffice  to  say  that  she  was  agitated  both  by  a  struggle  with 
her  aristocracy,  and  by  the  threatened  invasion  of  Charles 
of  Anjou.  In  Venice,  the  necessary  expense  of  war  had 
occasioned  the  impost  of  additional  taxes,  which  even  suc- 
cess could  not  strip  of  their  unpopularity ;  and  the  unreason- 
able rabble  of  its  capital,  proud  of  glory,  but  unwilling  to  pay 
its  price,  rose  m  the  streets,  attacked  the  ducal  palace,  and 
plundered  many  of  those  belonging  to  nobles  who  were 


■'-'jiiArft-  .:^>..«  -  ui,.-  J.^    gT  .t^.v.- 


152 


NEW  MODE  OF 


odious  or  suspected.  The  insurrection  was  suppressed  by 
the  prompt  summons  of  some  neighbouring  garrisons,  and 
punished  by  numerous  and  severe  executions :  and,  at  this 
period  of  disorder,  a  new  election  became  necessary  by 
the  death  of  Zeno.  The  change  introduced  m  Us  form 
exhibited  a  very  singular  combination  of  chance  with  tree 
choice  ;  and  an  endeavour  was  made  to  exclude  the  possi- 
bility of  influence  by  any  predominating  faction,  through  a 
complication  of  processes  which  no  sagacity  of  intrigue 
could  hope  either  to  foresee  or  to  direct. 

The  aid  of  the  diagram  on  the  opposite  page  will  render 
mteUiaible  this  intricate  form,  which  continued  in  force  as 
lona  a°s  the  republic  existed.     The  forty-one*  electors  to 
whom  the  choice  had  hitherto  been  confided  were  abolished. 
In  their  place,  thirty  members  were  set  apart,  by  ballot, 
from  the  grand  council.     These  were  reduced,  by  ballot 
also,   to  nine:  by  whom   forty  provisional  electors  were 
named;  the  first  four  counsellors  each  naming  five,  the 
five  hist,  four ;  and  the  whole  being  afterward  approved  by 
at  least  five  voices  out  of  the  nine.     Ballot  reduced  these 
forty  to  twelve,  the  first  of  whom  named  three  new  electors, 
each  of  the  others  two  ;  and  the  whole  twenty-five  resulting 
from  their  joint  choicv^  being  confirmed  by  nine  voices. 
From  these  a  committee  of  nine  was  again  obtained  by 
ballot ;  of  which  each  member  appointed  five  electors,  con- 
firmed by  seven  voices.     These  forty-five  were  diminished, 
by  ballot,  once  more  to  eleven,  of  whom  each  of  the  first  eight 
named  four  persons,  the  last  three,  three  :  and  the  forty-one 
thus  formed,  having  been  ratified  by  nine  voices,  constituted 
the  definitive  electors;  provided,  after  the  scrutiny  of  each 
name  by  the  grand  council,  it  united  an  absolute  majority 
of  their  suffrages.     If  it  failed  to  do  so,  the  last  committee 
of  eleven  was^bound  to  select  a  substitute.     It  will  be  per^ 
ceived  that  the  electors,  therefore,  were  produced  by  no  less 
Jhan  five  ballots  and  fivp  scrutinies.!     Immediately  after 

*  One  was  added  in  1249,  to  the  original  forty,  in  order  to  prevent  the 
recurrence  of  an  equal  division,  which,  in  1228,  had  protracted  au  election 
durin«^  more  than  two  months,  till  it  was  decided  by  lot. 

t  Daru  has  illnstrated  this  complicated  operation  by  the  diagram 
wJiicU  we  have  borrowed ;  and  also  by  the  following  ItaUan  rhymes, 
which  fall  very  legiliniately  into  English  memorial  doggerel. 
Trcfita  elegge  U  conseglio,  From  the  council's  nomination 

Pi  ^uei  nove  hanno  il  meglio ;    Thirty  meet ;  nine  keep  their  station  f 


ELECTING  A  DOGE. 


153 


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I  AaCiF.  ^  jCcff  1 


154  ELECTION  OF  A  DOGE. 

their  approval  by  the  council,  the  electors  v;ere  conductecl 
nto  af  IpartmL  from  which,  until  the  announcement  of 
heir  decision,  all  egress  was  peremptorily  forbidden  No 
communication  with  those  without  was  Pe™Uf '  ^^^^^  he 
very  windows  were  most  jealously  closed.  ^?^'^^^^^? 
tedhim  of  their  confinement,  they  were  ^^S^^^^f^' 
tained  at  the  pubUc  expense  ;  and  every  ^!  J^^^P^^^^^^^^^^ 
them,  which  did  not  involve  m  it  a  possibil  ty  of  breaking 
through  their  isolation,  was  promptly  gratified.  But  so 
udicrously  precise  were  the  cautions  adopted  to  prevent  the 
appe1^?anc7of  any  individual  preference  that  whatever  any 
one  member  of  the  elective  body  asked  for,  during  the  con- 
claveTwas  given,  not  to  him  singly,  but,  with  hnn,  to  each 
of  hs  brethren' also.  Thus,  on  application  by  a  pious 
elector  for  a  rosary,  forty-one  rosaries  were  earned  into  the 
saloon  ;  and  a  similar  request,  after  the  invention  of  print- 
kaf";  a  copy  of  ^sop's  Fables  entailed  the  necessity  of  a 
sel'rch  throul'h  all  the  booksellers'  shops  -  the  capital  for 
so  many  impressions  of  that  book  as  would  suftce  o  c^n- 
vince  the  whole  body  of  electors  that  no  partudity  was 

designed  in  favour  of  one.  .     .    i  i„  i  tu^ 

The  electors  having  chosen  three  prion,  ^^emaridcd  the 
assistance  of  two  secretaries,  who  were  subjected  to  the 
same  personal  restrictions  with  themselves.  Each  elector 
then,  according  to  his  seniority  of  age,  placed  in  an  urn  a 
scroll,  written  by  his  own  hand,  contammg  the  name  ot 
some  member  of  the  grand  council  whon.  he  considered 
fittest  for  doge.  One  of  the  secretaries  drew  out  these 
scrolls  at  hazard,  and  read  each  name  in  turn  ;  and  as  each 


Questi  ele^on  quarantn. 
Ma  chi  piu  in  lor  si  oanta 
Son  doderA,  chef  anno 
Ve)iti  cinque :  mastanno 
Vi  questi  soli  nove, 
Che  fan  con  le  lor  prove 
Qitaranta  cinque  a  ponto ; 
De'  quali  undeci  in  conto 
Elegg'in  quaranV  uno, 
Chp  chiusi  tXLtti  in  uno, 
Con  venii  cinque  al  meno 
Voti,  /anno  il  sereno 
Prencipe  che  coregge 
fitfUuti,  ordini  e  legge. 


Forty  next  by  these  are  chosen, 
Who,  by  lot,  become  a  dozen. 
Five-and-twenty  then  combine 
To  produce  another  nine; 
Hence  are  five-and-fbrty  given, 
Who,  diminished  to  eleven, 
Are  by  lorty-oue  succeeded  ; 
Of  whose  final  votes  are  needed 
Five-aiid-twenty,  to  create 
The  presiding  rnazistrate; 
The  serene,  by  whom,  elected 
Thus,  our  statutes  are  protected. 


GRAND  CHANCELLOR. 


155 


\ 


Was  read,  any  one  of  the  electors  might  state  at  length 
whatever  objections  occurred  to  him.  If  the  candidate  pro- 
posed were  himself  an  elector,  he  was  instructed  to  with- 
draw while  any  accusation  was  preferred,  but  he  had  liberty 
to  reappear  and  answer  it.  The  final  decision  was  obtained 
by  ballot ;  and  that  candidate  was  successful  in  whose 
favour  twenty-five  suflrages  were  united. 

The  first  doge  who  emerged  from  this  labyrinth  was 
Lorenzo  Thiepolo.  He  was  an  ardent  supporter  of 
the  aristocratical  interests ;  and  some  years  before,  ^^qq 
in  open  day,  and  in  the  public  streets  of  the  capital, 
he  had  been  poniarded,  and  left  for  dead,  by  two  leading  mem- 
bers of  the  opposite  faction.  Distinguished  as  a  naval  com- 
mander, and  by  a  victory  which  he  had  won  during  the 
Genoese  war,  he  was  a  favourite  with  the  sailors  ;  who,  on 
the  announcement  of  his  election,  raised  him  on  their 
shoulders,  and  carried  him  in  triumph  to  his  palace.  Hence 
arose  a  custom,  which  in  the  end  was  the  sole  share  retained 
by  the  people  in  the  election  of  their  chief  magistrate  ;  the 
artificers  of  the  grand  arsenal  claimed  the  right  of  bearing 
the  new  doge  in  his  chair,  when  he  made  the  circuit  of  the 
piazza  of  St.  Mark  on  the  day  of  his  election.  The  battle 
in  which  Thiepolo  had  gained  distinction,  and  endeared 
himself  to  the  fleet,  was  that  fought  in  the  Syrian  seas  at 
the  commencement  of  the  war  with  Genoa,  which  led  to 
the  expulsion  of  her  merchants  from  Acre.  To  commemo- 
rate their  triumph,  the  Venetinns  transported  to  their 
capital,  among  other  spoils  of  that  city,  two  square  marble 
columns,  inscribed  with  hieroglyphics  and  Syrian  char- 
acters, which  decorated  the  chief  portal  of  the  disputed 
church  of  Saint  Sabba.  These  trophies  were  erected  be- 
tween the  Broglio  and  the  baptistery  of  St.  Mark's,  where 
they  still  remain. 

Immediately  after  the  great  change  above  noticed,  an 
office  was  created,  the  only  one  connected  with  govemment 
which  belonged  to  the  cittadmi.  The  gieat  council,  the 
senate,  and  the  tribunals,  all  required  secretaries,  and  from 
that  body,  to  which  the  nobles  were  ineligible,  the  council 
nominated  a  grand  chancellor.  Invested  with  extraordi- 
nary dignity,  this  officer  was  wholly  debarred  from  power; 
he  had  a  seat  in  all  the  assemblies,  but  he  was  denied  a 
suffrage ;   he   took  precedence  of  every  member  of  the 


W. 


t 


H 


156 


ESTABLISHMENT  OF 


council,  except  the  procuratori  of  St.  Mark  and  the  coun- 
sellors of  the  doge;  the  great  seal  of  the  republic  was 
deposited  in  his  custody,  his  allowances  were  splendid,  and 
he  could  not  be  removed  during  life.  On  his  inauguration, 
the  procuratori  who  accompanied  him  to  the  collegio  yielded 
him  the  pas^  as  the  nobles  also  did  to  such  citizens  as 
attended  the  procession.  His  obsequies  were  celebrated 
with  as  much  pomp  as  those  of  the  doge  himself;  he  was 
interred  in  St.  Mark's,  a  funeral  oration  was  pronounced 
over  his  remains,  and  the  senators  who  retained  their  scarlet 
robes  at  the  burial  of  the  prince,  mourned  for  the  chancellor 
in  sables.  So  highly  esteemed  was  this  office,  that,  during 
the  times  in  which  nobility  was  to  be  purchased,  the  attain- 
ment of  the  chancellorship  was  more  than  once  preferred, 
whenever  such  choice  was  afforded,  to  inscription  in  the 

golden  book. 

A   few  years   after    the   accession   of  Giovanni 
12*80*    I^andolo,  Nicholas  IV.,  the  reigning  pope,  partially 
compassed  an  object  which  had  been  much  coveted 
during  the  reigns  of  no  less  than  ten  of  his  predecessors ; 
and  a  concordat  was  arranged  for  the  establishment 
of  the  inquisition  in  Venice.     But  the  wariness  of 
her  government  took  especial  pains  to  prevent  this 
foreign  jurisdiction  from  attaining  any  power  which  mi^ht 
affect  its  own ;  and  the  immunities  of  temporal  dominion 
were  carefully  fortified  against  the  encroachments  of  eccle- 
siastical ambition.     At  no  place  in  which  the  holy  office 
obtained  a  seat  did  it  so  little  further  the  purposes  of  its 
founders  as  in  the  Lagune.     Its  tribunal  in  the  capital  con- 
sisted of  the  papal  nuncio,  the  Bishop  of  Venice,  and  one 
other  ecclesiastic  :  neither  of  which  latter  could  act  without 
the  permission  of  the  doge.     In  the  provinces,  the  pope,  in 
like  manner,  had  the  barren  privilege  of  nomination ;  but 
his  nominees  were  powerless  if  the  doge  enforced  his  veto. 
Three  senators  in  Venice,  three  magistrates  in  the  provinces, 
completed  the  inquisitorial  band  ;  and,  without  their  pres- 
ence, all  proceedings  were  absolutely  null.      They  might 
suspend  the  deliberations  and  prohibit  the  execution  of  the 
sentences  of  their  court,  if  they  judged  them  contrary  to  the 
interests  of  the  republic.      Secrecy,  the  boasted  master- 
engine   of  the  institution,  here   lent  not  its   efficacy  to 
strengthen  the   pontifical  arm :   for  the  assistants  were 


A.  D. 

1289. 


THE  INQUISITION  IN  VENICE. 


157 


bound  by  oath  to  reveal  all  proceedings  to  the  senate,  and 
no  appeal  nor  evocation  to  Rome  was  permitted.  Nume- 
rous offences,  of  which  the  holy  office  elsewhere  asserted  its 
right  of  cognizance,  here  were  exempted ;  and  heresy,  in 
its  strictest  sense,  was  the  sole  crime  reserved  for  its  juris- 
diction. Thus,  it  was  said  that  it  was  not  just  that  the 
Romish  church  should  extend  her  authority  beyond  her 
own  members,  and  therefore  neither  Jews  nor  Greeks 
were  amenable  to  her  courts.  In  bigamy,  the  second  mar- 
riage, being  void,  was  esteemed  an  infraction  of  the  civil 
code,  not  a  violation  of  a  sacrament ;  and  provided  they  had 
not  insulted  any  spiritual  ordinances  or  offices,  blasphemers, 
usurers,  and  sorcerers,  those  most  copious  sources  of  victims 
to  the  inquisition,  were  emancipated  from  its  grasp.  All 
offences  of  priests  were  tried  by  secular  judges  ;  and  even 
the  funds  of  the  holy  office  were  managed  by  a  Venetian 
treasurer,  and  inspected  and  controlled  by  the  senate.  The 
property  of  condemned  prisoners  reverted  to  their  heirs, 
instead  of  ])eing  confiscated ;  and,  after  the  invention  of 
printing,  the  tyranny  of  state-licensing  was  divested  of  all 
interference  from  the  inquisitors,  and  committed  entirely  to 
the  civil  magistrates.  Such  were  some  of  the  chief  barriers 
which  effectually  prevented  that  bloody  and  ferocious  tri- 
bunal from  striking  its  baneful  roots  deeply  into  the  soil  of 
Venice.  Its  establishment  there,  and  the  restrictions  by 
which  it  was  limited,  have  been  accurately  recorded  by  the 
ablest  writer  whom  the  republic  ever  produced ;  and  the 
history  of  Paolo  Sarpi  may  be  perused  with  advantage  as 
teachinfT  both  tiie  artifices  of  Rome  and  the  wisdom  which 
countervailed  them. 

The  reign  of  Pietro  Gradcnigo  is  remarkable  both  for  its 
foreign   and   domestic   incidents.     Even  while   the 

o  .•AT) 

electors  were  deliberating,  after  the  death  of  Giovanni  ,  ^j,g 
Dandolo,  the  strong  current  of  popular  feeling  against 
that  aristocracy  which  was  so  soon  to  engross  the  whole  power 
of  the  state,  manifested  itself  fiercely  but  vainly.  A  crowd 
assembled  under  the  windows  of  the  palace,  and  on  their  own 
authority,  proclaimed  Giacopo  Thiepolo  doge.  Far  from  pos- 
sessing the  boisterous  requisites  for  a  demagogue,  this  can- 
didate of  the  people  was  a  man  of  benevolent  temper  and 
of  gentle,  if  not  timid,  spirit ;  and  the  very  qualities  which 
probably  occasioned  his  irregular  election,  induced  him  to 

VOL.'I.-^O 


i 


15S 


WAR  RENEWED  WITH  GENOA. 


withdraw  from  a  city  in  which  his  presence  encouraged 
sedition.  Six  days  elapsed  before  the  electors  ventured  to 
announce  their  choice.  It  had  fallen  upon  one  in  all  points 
calculated  to  oppose  that  growing  spirit  of  insubordination, 
whicli,  had  it  been  successful,  would  have  been  justly  styled 
the  love  of  liberty :  and  by  placing  Gradenigo  in  power, 
the  oligarchical  faction  obtained  an  instrument  well  fitted 
to  consummate  the  great  changes  which  had  been  long  grad- 
ually maturing  in  the  constitution.  Before  entering,  how- 
ever, upon  these  political  alterations,  we  must  briefly  advert 
to  some  foreign  transactions. 

On  the  expiration  of  the  truce  with  the  Genoese,  hostili- 
ties were  renewed  with  more  than  former  implaca- 
T90Q  hility,  and  with  an  entire  reverse  of  former  fortune. 
12Jd.  QgjjQg^  i^y  jjgj  connexion  with  the  Greeks,  had  ac- 
quired great  strength  in  the  East;  she  was  mistress  of 
Scio,  she  possessed  many  establishments  on  the  shores  of 
the  Black  Sea,  and  among  them  the  important  town  of 
Caffa,  which  commands  the  entrance  of  the  Sea  of  Azoph. 
Above  all,  she  held,  as  a  fief  of  the  empire,  Pera,  the  suburb 
of  Constantinople ;  and,  by  its  occupation,  she  virtually 
retained  the  keys  of  that  great  capital,  she  controlled  its 
fishery  and  its  customs,  without  her  permission  not  a  bark 
could  navigate  its  harbour,  and  as  she  closed  or  threw  open 
her  granaries,  famine  or  abundance  waited  on  her  pleasure. 
Pera,  nevertheless,  was  as  yet  unfortified,  and  it  was  easily 
surprised  and  burned  by  a  Venetian  armament;  which, 
passing  on  to  the  Black  Sea,  spread  terror  through  its  coasts, 
and  ravaged  the  equally  defenceless  Caffa.  The  detach- 
ment employed  on  this  latter  service  imprudently  wintered 
in  the  Crimea,  and  paid  for  its  daring  by  the  loss  of  more 
than  half  its  crew  and  equipments.  The  Genoese  were 
speedily  revenged ;  and  the  temporary  abandonment  of  Pera 
was,  in  the  end,  most  advantageous  to  their  interests  ;  for, 
having  received  permission  to  fortify  it,  they  raised  their 
works  with  incredible  rapidity,  and  soon  rendered  them- 
selves as  formidable  to  their  allies,  as  they  became  impreg- 
nable by  their  enemies.  In  the  mean  time  sixty-six  galleys, 
a  portion  of  a  larger  fleet  of  one  hundred  and  sixty  sail,  in 
which  were  embarked  twenty-five  thousand  troops,  all  natives 
of  Genoa,  penetrated  the  Adriatic  ;  where,  off  Curzola, 
they  encountered  a  superior  Venetian  force.     Undismayed 


MARCO  POLO. 


159 


by  the  appearance  of  no  less  than  ninety-five  hostile  vessels, 
Lamba  Doria  detached  fifteen  of  his  own,  with  orders  not 
to  engage  till  they  could  bear  down  with  the  wind,  during  the 
heat   of  action.     This   bold   manoeuvre   succeeded.     The 
shock  of  the  fresh  and  unexpected  galleys  was  irresistible ; 
and  never  was  a  heavier  defeat  suffered  than  that  inflicted  on 
the  Venetians :  sixty-five  of  their  ships  were  burnt,  and 
eighteen,  with  seven  thousand  prisoners,  taken.     Among 
these  prisoners  was  one  whose  celebrity,  on  another  account, 
has  reached  our  own  times  ;  and  it  is,  perhaps,  to  the  cap- 
tivity of  Marco  Polo  that  we  are  indebted  for  the  written 
history  of  his  travels.     After  an  absence  of  nearly  forty 
years,  spent  for  the  most  part  in  countries  as  yet  unex- 
plored, this  enterprising  Venetian  had  returned  from  the 
Tartar  court  of  Kublai  Khan,  to  recount  the  wonders  of 
extreme  Asia  to  his  fellow-citizens.     His   great   nautical 
experience  obtained  for  him  the  command  of  a  galley  in 
this  unfortunate  action,  in  which  he  was  foremost  in  the 
attack,  was  wounded,  and  taken  prisoner.     To  beguile  the 
tediousness  of  four  years'  imprisonment,  he  "committed  his 
adventures  to  paper  :  and  owing  to  the  surprise  and  admi- 
ration which  they  excited  even  among  the  Genoese,  he  ob- 
tained his  freedom.     A  less  happy  fate  awaited  the  Venetian 
admiral,  Andrea  Dandolo.     The  Genoese,  exulting  in  their 
success,   and  forgetful  of  that  respect  which  a  generous 
spirit  gladly  pays  to  a  brave  though  vanquished  enemy, 
loaded  their  illustrious  prisoner  with  chains,  and  exposed 
him  conspicuously  to  the  rude  gaze  of  the  fleet,  as  a  signal 
evidence  of  their  victory.     Before  they  reached  their  capital 
Dandolo  had  deprived  them  of  this  barbarous  triumph  ;  for, 
leaping  from  the  bench  of  the  galley,  he  dashed  his  head 
forcibly  against  her  side,  and  was  borne  on  shore  a  corpse. 
The  following  year  witnessed  a  second  naval  defeat  of  the 
Venetians,  off  Gallipoli,  less  disastrous  than   that 
which  we  have  just  related  only  inasmuch   as  the 
forces  engaged  were  inferior  in  numbers  :  and  six- 
teen ships  out  of  four-and-twenty  fell  into  the  power  of 
the  conquerors.     The  seas  could  no  longer  be  disputed  with 
the  Genoese  ;  yet  how  little  in  these  times  were  the  general 
principles  of  maritime  warfare  understood  !     After  the  loss 
of  more  than  one  hundred  ships,  while  Venice  was  unable 
to  man  a  squadroo  which  could  face  t^e  overwlielming 


A.  D* 

1294. 


Ii 


ll 


I . 


■fSSffiSPPSp- 


160 


PEACE  WITH  GENOA. 


A.  D. 

1299. 


Buperioiity  of  her  enemy,  we  read  with  surprise  of  a  gallant 
adventurer,  Sclavoni,  who,  with  no  more  than  four  galleys, 
escaped  the  vigilance  of  the  Mediterranean  cruisers,  made  a 
bold  and  successful  attack  upon  the  capital  of  the  victors, 
burnt  one  of  their  merchantmen  anchored  in  the  port  and 
under  the  very  walls  of  Genoa,  and  returned  to  the  Lagwne 
laden  with  a  considerable  booty. 

This  useless  and  destructive  contest,  in  which  each  party, 
without  acquisition  of  real  glory,  exhausted  its  own  strength 
while  injuring  its  adversary,  was  closed  for  a  while  by  the 
mediation  of  Matteo  Visconti,  Lord  of  Milan,  and 
peace  was  concluded  as  a  breathing-time  for  a  fresh 
war.  Genoa  had  obtained  the  right  of  dictating 
terms,  and  she  prohibited  any  armed  Venetian  ship  from 
entering  the  Black  Sea  or  touching  on  the  coast  of  Syria 
for  the  next  thirteen  years. 

Two  years  before  he  was  disengaged  from  the  second 
Genoese  war,  Gradenigo  obtained  a  decree  of  the  great 
council,  which  may  be  esteemed  the  corner-stone  upon  which 
the  future  pure  oligarchy  of  Venice  was  consolidated. 
Hitherto,  if  we  have  spoken  of  different  classes  existing  in 
this  state,  the  distinction  between  them  must  be  considered 
much  more  as  conventional,  than  as  resulting  from  positive 
institutions.  The  population  of  Venice  can  scarcely  be  said 
to  have  been  separated  into  patrician  and  plebeian,  by  any 
of  those  marked  and  decided  boundaries  which  struck  a  deep 
and  early  root  in  other  communities.  Her  origin  was 
friendly  to  the  preservation  of  as  much  equality  as  can  prac- 
tically exist  in  any  large  society  ;  and  the  want  of  all  landed 
territory  had  kept  her  aloof  from  the  introduction  of  the 
feodal  system,  with  its  accompaniments  of  lordships  and 
vassalage.  Still,  wherever  numbers  of  men  are  congregated 
into  one  body,  some  pre-eminence  must  be  attained  ;  some 
individuals  will  command  greater  respect,  and  consequently 
exercise  greater  influence,  than  their  contemporaries.  This 
superiority,  in  the  first  instance,  will  probably  be  accorded 
to  talent ;  and  those  who  possess  the  most  intimate  know- 
ledge of  their  fellow-men  will  be  most  hkely  to  obtain  the 
earliest  guidance  of  their  conduct.  Wealth  will  next  estab- 
lish a  claim  to  regard ;  and  as  riches  are  more  frequently 
transmitted  to  posterity  than  ability,  the  first  distinctions 
of  what  may  be  called  hereditary  rank  will  accrue  to  the 


ORIGIN  OF  VENETIAN  NOBILITY. 


161 


families  possessed  of  most  substance.  It  is  easy  to  per- 
ceive in  what  manner  these  advantages,  when  once  obtained 
(and  the  lapse  of  very  few  years  in  civilized  society  cannot 
but  bestow  them),  will  lead  to  a  virtual,  if  not  to  an  acknow- 
ledged, separation  of  classes  ;  and  it  is  natural  to  suppose 
that  those  who,  in  any  way,  are  elevated  above  their 
brethren,  will  find  both  the  readiest  access  to  magisterial 
offices  and  the  surest  methods  of  retaining  them :  so  that 
hence  also  arises  another  source  of  distinction.  Such  appears 
to  have  been  the  progress  of  what,  in  conformity  with  the 
habits  of  other  countries,  we  must  name  the  Venetian 
nobility. 

The  great  council,  placed,  in  its  very  outset,  beyond  the 
reach  of  popular  suffrage,  had  gradually  eluded  even  the 
slight  control  of  annual  election.  Without  being  able  to 
trace  the  progress  of  usurpation  step  by  step,  it  may  bo 
enough  to  say  that  it  attributed  to  itself  the  right  of  naming 
the  twelve  electors  by  whom  it  was  to  be  renewed  ;  and 
consequently  that,  in  point  of  fact,  it  re-elected  itself. 
Hence,  for  the  most  part,  its  members  were  chosen  from 
the  same  families,  or  rather  generally  consisted  of  the  same 
individuals  who  had  once  obtained  seats  in  it.  Still,  at 
least  in  name,  it  was  neither  permanent  nor  exclusive.  No 
one  afl^rmed  an  hereditary  claim  to  its  honours  ;  no  one 
asserted  that  he  belonged  to  it  otherwise  than  as  a  represent- 
ative :  and  the  poorest  citizen,  however  conscious  that  he 
could  never  hope  for  enrolment  upon  its  list  of  sages,  con- 
tented himself  with  a  belief  that  there  was  no  other  obstacle  to 
so  bright  a  fortune  except  improbability. 

Even  this  consolatory  fallacy  was  now  to  be  dissipated. 
In  the  last  reign  a  proposition  had  been  made  that  the 
annual  electors  should  be  instructed  never  to  choose  any 
member  who  had  not  himself  already  been  admitted,  or  who 
was  unable  to  prove  the  admission  of  some  ancestor.  Dan- 
dolo,  who  favoured  the  popular  interests,  opposed  this 
project,  and  it  was  rejected  :  Gradenigo  obtained  the  ^oq^* 
same  object  by  a  more  circuitous  route.  Assuming 
that,  as  the  annual  elections  had  almost  invariably  fallen 
upon  the  same  individuals,  those  individuals  had,  therefore, 
established  a  right,  he  did  not  so  much  support  the  claim  of 
re-election  to  a  body  of  which  he  already  held  them  to  be  con- 
stituent members,  as  the  necessity  of  determining  whether 

02 


II 
I 


i  ij 


% ' 


162 


CLOSING  OF  THE  GREAT  COUNCIL. 


they  were  still  worthy  of  continuing  in  it.  This  artf\il 
representation,  as  will  be  seen  at  once,  wholly  changed  the 
nature  of  the  council.  To  effect  his  purpose,  the  doge  pro- 
posed that  a  list  of  all  who  had  been  members  during  the 
last  four  years  should  be  submitted  to  the  XL.,  and  that 
every  member  who  united  twelve  of  their  suffrages  should 
retain  his  seat.  At  the  expiration  of  a  year,  the  same 
scrutiny  was  to  be  repeated.  To  prevent  the  appearance 
of  an  entire  exclusion  of  all  but  this  favoured  class,  three 
members  of  the  council  were  instructed  to  form  a  supple- 
mentary list  of  citizens  eligible  without  having  already  sat. 
These  were  limited  in  number  by  the  signory,  and  were 
balloted  for  in  like  manner  by  the  XL.  It  is  needless  to 
speak  of  the  class  from  which  this  list  was  selected  :  it  was 
similar  to  that  of  the  existing  members.  The  decree  passed, 
and  bears  in  history  the  name  of  The  Closing  of  the  Council 
{La  Scrrata  del  mazor  Couseio).  It  was  not  such  in  fact ; 
but  it  was  the  first  step  towards 'it,   and  the  others  were 

rapidly  trodden.  During  the  next  two  years  the 
V2Qfi'    ^  -"  returned  exactly  the  same  members.     In  the 

third,  all   names  were  excluded   from  the  supple- 
mentary list  but  those  of  persons  who  themselves  or  whose 
OAA     ancestors  had  been  members.     A  subsequent  statute 

spoke  of  the  positive  exclusion  of  those  who  were 
contemptuously  termed  new  men.  Not  long  after,  a 
,o|c     register  was  opened,  in  which  all  qualified  persons 

having  attained  the  age  of  eighteen  were  required 
to  inscribe  their  names  :  and,  lastly,  the  periodical  renewals, 
-„,q     and  the  supplementary  lists  were  swept  away  ;  the 

existing  council  was  declared  permanent  and  heredi- 
tary ;  and  whoever  could  prove  his  ancestral  right  was  per- 
mitted, when  five-and-twenty  years  old,  to  assert  his  claim, 
as  the  form  ran,  per  suos  et  per  viginti  quinque  annos ;  to 
be  enrolled  in  the  golden  book  {II  Libro  d'Oro)  of  nobility, 
and  thus  to  be  admitted  as  a  member  of  the  great  council. 
Thirty  dispensations — at  first  decided  by  lot,  afterward 
sometimes  accorded  to  merit,  but  more  frequently  put  up 
to  sale — were  also  granted,  by  which  such  young  patricians 
as  obtained  them  might  take  their  seats  at  the  age  of  twenty- 
one.  They  were  named  /  Barherini,  because  they  were 
elected  on  the  feast  of  San  Barbo. 

In  later  days,  the  nobili  were  arranged,  if  not  fonnally, 


CLASSES  OF  NOBILITY. 


163 


at  least  conventionally,  in  four  classes.  The  most  distin- 
guished, Gli  Elettoraliy  were  descendants  of  the  twelve 
tribunes  by  whom  the  first  doge  had  been  electod  in  the 
year  697  :  to  these  were  annexed  four  families,  whose  rep- 
resentatives, in  conjunction  with  the  above-mentioned 
twelve,  signed  an  instrument  for  the  foundation  of  the  Ab- 
bey of  San  Georgio  Maggiore,  in  the  year  800.  Of  these, 
the  former  are  sometimes  spoken  of  as  /  dodici  Apostoliy* 
the  latter  as  I  quatro  Evangelisti.f  Six  other  families  also 
were  admitted  without  hesitation  to  the  first  class  ;t  and 
there  were  two  or  three  besides  whose  claim  was  more  or 
less  contested  :  this  class  furnished  more  than  half  her 
doges  to  the  republic.  The  second  class  consisted  of  those 
whose  ancestors  were  members  of  the  grand  council  at  the 
time  of  its  closing,  and  each  of  these  had  its  doge.  The 
third  comprised  thirty  families  admitted  after  the  war  of 
Chiozza,  in  return  for  the  great  services  which  they  had 
rendered  to  the  state  ;  three  of  these  also  have  produced  a 
doge.  The  fourth  and  lowest  class  originated  among 
Venetian  citizens,  Candiotes,  or  other  provincials,  who,  du- 
ring the  Turkish  wars,  upon  which  we  have  not  yet  entered, 
gratified  their  own  vanity  and  relieved  the  necessities  of  the 
republic  by  purchasing  nobility  at  the  market-price  of  one 
hundred  thousand  ducats.  One  only  doge  was  elevated 
from  this  division,  and,  singularly  enough,  it  was  Manini, 
the  last  sovereign  of  his  country.  These  four  classes  of  no- 
bility altogether  seldom  exceeded  twelve  hundred  in  number, 
but  to  these  must  be  added  another,  which  may  be  con- 
sidered as  honorary.  It  included  such  illustrious  foreigners 
(and  among  these  more  than  one  crowned  head  was  num- 
bered) as  had  solicited  or  received  inscription  in  the  golden 
book.  This  honour  was  very  jealously  guarded,  and  it 
was  not  without  extreme  difficulty  that  Gregory  XIII.  ob- 
tained admission  for  one  of  his  bastard  sons.  All  illegiti- 
mate children  of  the  native  nobility,  even  those  who  had 
been  legitunated  by  a  subsequent  marriage,  were  rigorously 
excluded  ;  and  the  council,  after  long  deliberation  upon  the 

*  Badouari,  Barozz.1,  Contnrini,  Dandoli,  Falierl.  Gradenighi,  Memml 
otiierwise  Mouegari,  Miclueli,  Morosini,  Polaai,  Sanuiii  otherwibe  Can- 
diaiii,  Thiepoli. 

t  Bembi,  Bragadini,  Cornari,  Giustiniani. 

J  Dclfiiii,  Querim,  Sagredj,  Soranzi,  Zeni,  Ziani. 


I 


164 


THE  NOBLES. 


style  by  which  the  pope's  7iephew  should  be  recognised,  at 
last  decided  upon  a  form  sufficiently  ambiguous  to  remove 
its  scruples ;  Jl  Si^nor  Giacamo  Buoncompagno,  stretto 
parente  di  sua  Saniitd — a  near  relation  of  his  holiness. 

Besides  the  above  distribution  of  the  nobles  into  classes, 
there  was  a  yet  more  summary  mode  of  distinguishing 
them :  the  rich  were  termed  /  Signori ;  the  poor,  who 
formed  two-thirds  of  the  body,  and  who  chiefly  inhabited 
the  cheap  quarter  of  San  Barnabo,  /  Barnahoti.  Or,  re- 
taining Barnahoti  for  the  last,  the  wealthiest  were  named 
in  a  sort  of  slang  language,  Sanguc  hlo  or  Sarigue  coloin- 
hhi,  blue  blood  or  pigeon's  blood ;  the  moderately  rich. 
Morel  di  mezoy  middle  piece.  The  pride  of  birth,  however, 
was  discouraged  as  much  as  possible  in  Venice,  when  it  led 
to  comparisons  which  might  occasion  disunion  among  the 
nobility  ;  and  one  of  the  ordinances  of  that  most  fearful  tri- 
bunal which  we  shall  have  occasion  to  notice  hereafter, 
the  inquisition  of  state,  directed  itself,  with  what  to  most 
will  appear  disproportionate  severity,  against  such  as  dis- 
paraged their  brethren  by  boasting  of  their  own  superior 
antiquity.  The  spies  entertained  among  the  patricians 
were  warned  to  report  all  expressions  of  this  tendency  ;  the 
first  offence  was  punished  with  six  months'  imprisonment 
in  the  piombi,  those  fatal  dungeons  under  the  leads  of  the 
ducal  palace,  from  which  few  returned  alive ;  for  the 
second,  the  indiscreet  babbler  was  to  be  drowned  secretly.* 
An  anecdote  is  related  by  Amclot  de  la  Houssaye,  which, 
perhaps,  may  have  been  invented  for  the  sake  of  the  jest 
which  it  contains,  but  which  nevertheless  well  illustrates 
the  spirit  of  the  Venetian  government  on  this  point.  One 
of  the  Da  Fonte  family,  in  a  dispute  with  a  gentleman  named 
Canaky  boasted  that  the  ponti  (bridges)  were  much  above 
the  canali  (canals) ;  his  antagonist  replied,  that  the  canali 
were  in  being  long  before  the  existence  of  the  ponti.  The 
senate  interfered,  and  informed  the  one  that  it  possessed 
power  to  fill  up  the  canals ;  the  other,  that  it  could  knock 
down  the  bridges.^ 

It  must  not  be  supposed  that  this  revolution  was  effected 
as  quietly  as  it  is  here  related,  or  that  the  people  at  large 
were  insensible  to  their  exclusion  from  all  share  in  their 


t 


Asigiontn  al  capitolare  delli  Inq.  di  Stato,  7. 
liUt.du.  Goiiv.  de  Venise,  i.  61. 


sBANQUET  TO  THE  FISHERMEN. 


165 


own  government.  Gradenige  addressed  himself  with  much 
art  to  the  rulhig  passions  of  the  diflerent  parties  in  the  state. 
A  few  individuals  of  influence  had  been  inadvertently 
omitted  in  the  first  lists  of  the  great  council ;  and  most  of 
these  were  soon  afterward  specially  summoned  to  it.  The 
populace,  unfitted  and  little  anxious  for  real  power,  yet 
proud  of  familiar  approach  to  those  by  whom  it  is  ad- 
ministered, were  cajoled  by  an  empty  condescension  ;  when 
the  doge  invited  the  fishermen  of  the  capital  to  a  public 
banquet,  and  permitted  them  to  embrace  him  at  its  conclu- 
sion. So  gratifying  was  this  privilege,  that  the  com- 
monalty became  unwilling  to  relinquish  it,  and  it  passed 
into  an  annual  custom.  But  in  after  years,  when  the 
aristocracy  was  firmly  established,  spirits  like  those  of 
Caius  Marcius  were  found  among  the  nobles,  which  re- 
volted from  this  "  supple  bonneting"  of  the  rabble  ;  and  a 
Contarini,  when  in  authority,  refused  the  ill-assorted  feast 
and  the  kiss  of  mock  fraternity.  His  denial,  if  persevered 
in,  might  have  shaken  Venice  to  its  base.  When  the  fisher- 
men assembled  on  the  appointed  day,  and  clamorously  de- 
xnanded  admission,  it  was  long  before  the  reluctant  doge 
was  prevailed  upon  to  appear,  and  even  when  he  did  so  he 
was  masked.  His  guests,  approaching  him  individually, 
inflicted  the  kiss ;  and  as  a  monument  of  their  triumph, 
they  afterward  placed  in  the  church  of  Sta.  Agnese  a  picture 
representing  the  ceremony. 

In  little  more  than  two  years,  however,  from  the  first 
closing  of  the  council,  the  discontented  found  a 
leader ;  and  three  citizens  of  the  middle  class  of 
society  meditated  the  assassination  of  the  doge,  and 
a  remodelling  of  the  government.  Few  circumstances  of 
this  conspiracy  are  preserved  to  us  beyond  the  names  of  the 
chief  actors  and  its  suppression.  By  the  vigilance  of  the 
doge,  or  the  imprudence  of  the  insurgents,  the  plot  was 
discovered  before  it  was  ripe  for  execution,  and  Bocconio, 
Baldovino,  and  Giuda  perished  on  the  scaffold. 

Some  of  the  native  writers  have  fixed  upon  this  time  as 
an  epoch  in  Venetian  history,  and  have  affirmed  that  the 
year  1303  witnessed  the  termination  of  the  adolescence  of 
the  republic.  "  Ever  since,"  observes  an  author  whose  pre- 
science manifestly  did  not  extend  so  far  as  the  nineteenth 
century,  "  she  has  proceeded  with  the  gravity  and  prudence 


A.  D. 

1299. 


i      i:  i 

i* 

f 

■i 


i 


n 


riiUiii^jiMita 


MlJlMiH 


■HaMfM^MMU 


166 


OCCUPATION  OF  FERRARA. 


of  mature  age ;  and  being  a  happy  mixture  of  monarchy, 
aristocracy,  and  democracy,  it  is  likely,  with  Jhe  assistance 
of  the  ffods,  that  she  will  endure  to  eternity  !  * 

An  embroilment  with  the  holy  see  for  a  while  diver  ed  the 
attention  of  the  republic  from  domestic  quarrels,  only  that 
they  mitrht  in  the  end  be  renewed  with  increased  virulence. 
The  succession  of  Ferrara  was  disputed,  on  the 
^'  ^'    death  of  Azzo  VIII.  of  Este,  by  Francesco,  a  brother, 
^^^^'    and  Fresco,  a  natural  son,t  to  each  of  whom  it  had 
been  bequeathed  by  separate  wills  of  the  deceased  prmce. 
The  Venetians,  calculating  upon  some  private  advantage 
by  interference  in  a  neighbouring  contest,   espoused  the 
interests  of  the  latter,  and  despatched  to  his  support  six 
thousand  men,  by  whom  Ferrara  was  assaulted,  part  of  the 
town  burned,  and  the  citadel  captured.     Yet  the  bastard  of 
Este,  although  thus  far  successful,  was  unable  to  hope  tor 
stability  of  power,  for  he  was  not  wholly  free  from  a  sus- 
picion of  having  accelerated  his  father's  death,$  and  he  had 
brought  the  hol-rors  of  civil  war  upon  his  country.     Exe- 
crated, therefore,  by  his  fellow-citizens,  he  abandoned  his 
throne  almost  as  soon  as  he  had  reconquered  it,  and  the 
Venetians  received,  or  pretended  to  receive,  a  cession  ot  his 
rights  in  their  own  favour.     On  the  unsatisfactory  plea  that 
the  mother  of  the  illegitimate  prince  was  a  native  of  the 
Laguney  they  claimed  possession  of  Ferrara,  as  a  return  for 
the  thousand  ducats  with  which  they  had  pensioned  its  ab- 
dicated sovereign."^     But  another  pretender  had  arisen  from 
the  new  seat  of  the  papacy  at  Avignon;  and  Clement  V., 

*  See  the  authorities  referred  to  by  MTherson,  Annals  of  Commerce, 

"""tsismondi  calls  him  grandson,  vol.  iv.  p.  281.    But  the  Chronicon 
Estense,  Morosiui,  and  Verdizzotti,  all  concur  in  making  him  son 

1  Azzo  VIII.  himself  is  accused  by  Dante  of  a  similar  crime ;  and  his 
father,  Obizzo  II.,  is  represented  as  condemned  to  the  same  pumshmenl 
as  Eccellino.  So  far  as  we  have  been  able  to  trace  them,  the  charges  of 
cruelty  against  the  father,  and  parricide  against  the  sou,  are  eijually 

unfounded.  ,        ,,  , ,  •     j 

Queir  altro  cK  i  btondo 

E  Obizzo  da  Este,  il  qnal  per  vera,  ,  ,    ,,  - 

Fu  spento  dalJigUastro  su  nel  mondo.—  lnj.  XU.  A. 

That  with  flaxen  locks, 
0\)\TM  of  Este,  in  the  world  destroyed 
By  his  foul  step-son.— Cary. 

%  JHorosinl,  i.%,    Verdizzotti,  x. 


INTERDICT  OF  CLEMENT  V. 


167 


tracing  back  the  rights  of  the  pontificate  to  the  very  origin 
of  the  city,  avowed  that  the  church,  like  a  tender  mother, 
once  again  opened  her  bosom  for  the  reception  of  a  long-lost 
child ;  and  that  "  although  leviathan,  the  wily  serpent,  and 
author  of  all  evil,  had  poisoned  the  hearts  of  the  Venetians, 
Rome  would  not  be  backward  in  rescuing  her  desolate  off- 
spring from  the  jaws  of  a  roaring  lion,  which  were  opened 
to  devour." 

To  thd  utter  exclusion  of  all  hereditary  claims  of  the 
rightful  family,  the  possession  of  Ferrara  was  now,  there- 
fore, contested  by  strangers.  The  pope  despatched  a  nuncio 
to  Venice ;  and  on  the  rejection  of  his  demands  he  excom- 
municated the  doge,  and  put  his  dominions  under  interdict. 
The  bull  issued  on  this  occasion  is  a  memorable 
record  of  the  fiiry,  the  arrogance,  and  the  folly  of  '^nnk 
Rome.  The  Venetians  were  likened  in  it  to  Dathan, 
Abiram,  Absalom,  and  Lucifer — personages  who  appear  to 
have  been  always  retained  for  employment  on  similar  occa- 
sions ;  for  we  call  to  mind  more  than  one  usage  of  them  at 
times  m  which  our  own  princes  excited  the  wrath  of  the 
Vatican.  Unless  Ferrara  should  be  surrendered  within  a 
month,  all  nations  were  forbidden  from  holding  any  com- 
merce with  Venice  ;  the  doge  and  his  republic  were  to  be 
stripped  of  all  privileges  and  fiefs  which  might  have  been 
granted  heretofore  by  the  holy  see ;  his  subjects  were  re- 
leased from  their  oath  of  fidelity  to  him  ;  all  Venetians  were 
declared  infamous,  incapable  of  administering  public  func- 
tions even  among  themselves,  of  appearing  in  courts  of 
justice,  either  as  plaintiffs  or  defendants,  and  of  bequeathing 
or  inheriting  property ;  and  their  children,  to  the  fourth 
generation,  were  excluded  from  all  secular  and  ecclesiastical 
dignities.  These  penalties  after  two  months'  delay  were 
to  be  enhanced  yet  further  by  the  actual  deposition  of  the 
doge  and  all  his  ministers,  the  annulment  of  all  contracts  and 
obligations  which  had  been  entered  into  with  them,  the  con- 
fiscation of  the  entire  property  of  every  Venetian,  and  the 
summons  of  all  Christendom  to  arms  in  order  to  reduce 
them  to  slavery. 

Clement's  spiritual  censures  were  followed  up  by  vigorous 
demonstrations,  far  more  likely  to  produce  effect  upon  the 
stubborn  disobedience  of  Venice,  than  all  the  thunders  of 
ecclesiastical  wratli.    A  cardinal  took  the  field  with  an  nnnv 


f 


I 


168 


EFFECTS  OF  THE  PAPAL  INTERDICT. 


of  crusaders,  defeated  the  force  opposed  to  him,  pursued  it 
under  the  walls  of  Ferrara,  and,  aided  by  the  inhabitants, 
who  willingly  opened  their  gates,  obtained  possession  of  the 
city.  The  loss  of  the  Venetians  was  most  severe  :  In  the 
battle  and  the  occupation  of  the  town,  and  from  the  more 
secret  vengeance  inflicted  afterward  by  the  citizens,  not 
less  than  five  thousand  men  (and  some  writers  have  ex- 
tended the  victims  to  thrice  that  number)  fell  beneath  the 
sword  or  the  stiletto.  The  citadel,  their  sole  remaining 
post,  was  soon  afterward  abandoned,  and  its  garrison  found 
safety  in  flight. 

Meantime,  whether  from   a  superstitious    awe   of  the 
papal  denunciation,  or,  as  is  more  probable,  from  a  general 
jealousy  of  the  wealth  and  power  of  a  state,  who,  without 
territorial  possession,  mated  herself  with  kings,   Venice 
was  proscribed  throughout  Europe.     Not  only  the  Itahan 
ports,  but  France,  England,  Arragon,  and  Sicily,  impelled 
either  by  weakness  or  avarice,  pillaged  her  factories  and 
confiscated  her  merchandise.     An  embargo  was  laid  upon 
her  ships  ;  many  of  her  residents  and  mariners  were  killed ; 
yet  more  were  condemned  as  slaves,  and  sold  even  to  the 
Infidels,  at  whose  hands  they  were  likely  to  encounter  a 
more  gentle  treatment   than  at  those  of  their  Christian 
brethren.     "  Happy  indeed  for  us  was  it,"  is  the  strong 
language  of  a  Venetian  historian,  "  that  the  Saracens  also 
were  not  among  the  baptized."*     Throughout  the  Dcgado 
and  its  dependencies  all  services  of  the  church  were  inter- 
rupted.    The  clergy  avoided  a  land  groaning  under  male^ 
diction ;  the  sacraments,  for  the  most  part,  were  denied  ; 
and  it  was  not  without  dilTiculty  that  even  the  newly-born 
received  admission  to  the  faith  by  its  solemn  initiatory  rites, 
and  that  the  dying  were  permitted  the  consolation  of  the 
viaticum.     These  privations,  and  the  sufferings  resulting 
from  them,  the  hardness  and  despair  produced  by  the  sus- 
pension of  religious  ordinances,  the  dearth  and  impoverish- 
ment which  were  the  natural  fruits  of  commercial  stagnation, 
increased  in  no  slight  degree  that  evil  feeling  which  already 
existed   among   the   citizens    towards   their    government. 
Gradenigo  was  personally  unpopular,  and  nothing  is  easier 
in  such  a  case  than  the  assumption  that  public  calamity 

*  Verdiazotti,  X. 


CONSPIRACY  OF  THIEPOLO. 


169 


has  its  source  in  the  individual  who  is  the  object  of  public 
hatred.  He  had  not  as  yet,  it  is  true,  advimced  the  do- 
minion of  the  aristocracy  to  tiie  full  height  which  we  have 
shown  that  it  ultimately  attained  ;  but  more  than  enough 
had  already  been  effected  to  mark  the  goal  to  which  his 
course  was  tending.  Even  among  the  nobles,  not  all  were 
satisfied  :  some  there  were  who  disdained  to  participate 
authority  which  they  considered  their  own  exclusive  riuht, 
with  the  few  newer  members  whom  it  had  been  deemed 
politic  to  associate  wilh  them  in  the  council ;  and  more 
than  one  debate  of  a  stormy  character  had  passed  between 
them  within  the  walls  of"  the  assembly.  Of  the  class 
which  was  left  without  hope  of  elevation,  it  is  needless  to 
speak.  With  the  multitude  excuses  for  insubordination 
are  never  wanting;  and  in  the  present  instance,  they 
might,  perhaps,  be  advanced  with  less  then  usual  deviation 
from  truth.  The  whole  period  of  Gradenigo's  reign  had 
been  disastrous;  and  the  obvious  remedy  which  presented 
itself  was  to  be  found  in  a  change  of  masters. 

Such,  doubtless,  was  the  ojjinion  inculcated  by  the  chiefs 
of  three  distinguished  families  who  undertook  the 
attempt.  The  conspira'-y  was  not,  as  before,  or-  ')'Jl: 
ganized  by  plebeians.  Boemondo  'i'hiepolo  counted 
two  doges  among  his  ancestors,  and  his  brother*  Giacomo, 
if  the  voice  of  the  peopln  had  l)een  obeyed,  would  now  him- 
self have  borne  that  title.  Married  to  a  daughter  of  Marco 
Querini,  Boemondo  found  in  his  adoptive  father  an  ambition 
of  which  his  brother  had  shown  himself  devoid.  The 
Querini  traced  their  origin  to  ancient  Rome;  and,  passing 
by  the  three  doges  of  their  name  who  had  governed  in  the 
eighth  century,  they  boasted  of  the  proud  line  of  the 
Sulpitii,  and  their  descent  from  the  imperial  Galba.  The 
house  of  Badouero,  the  third  which  completed  this  band, 
had  swayed  Venice  at  one  time  bv  almost  hereditarv  riirht ; 
and  no  less  than  seven  doges  had  sprung  from  their  race. 
These  families  were  hostile  to  Gradenigo  and  his  poL.  v ; 
and  besides  the  general  tenor  of  his  administration,  per- 
sonal causes  of  dislike  are  mentioned,  little  creditable  to  the 
conspirators.     Querini  had  been  deprived  of  the  command 

*  Logier  and  Daru  make  Boemondo  a  son  of  Giacomo  Thiepolo ;  Sis- 
mondi  a  brother.    TUe  latter  is  supported  by  Ver»lizzoili,  U.  p.  207. 
Vol.  I. — P 


w 


170 


CONSPIRACY  OF  THIEPOLO. 


of  that  fleet  which  afterward  fought  so  unsuccessfully  with 
Lamba  Doria ;  his  brother  had  been  convicted  of  pecula- 
tion ;  and  the  hands  of  Thiepolo  himself  were  not  more 
pure ;  he  had  been  fined  for  a  misappropriation  of  money 
in  a  government  which  he  held  in  the  Morea.*  Their  con- 
nexions were  naturally  extensive,  and  embraced  personages 
of  the  most  illustrious  rank ;  so  that  among  many  others 
involved  in  their  design  were  counted  the  Lord  of  Paros 
and  a.  procuratore  of  Saint  Mark. 

The  fierce  watchwords  of  faction,  the  party  names  of 
Gueljh  and  Ghibelin,  were  heard  in  Venice  for  the  first 
time  juring  the  progress  of  this  conspiracy,  and  the  doge 
was  stigmatized  as  belonging  to  the  latter  party,  because 
he  had  opposed  the  pope.  His  death,  therefore,  was  said 
to  be  no  less  demanded  by  insulted  rehgion  than  by  violated 
liberty.  One  only  voice  appears  to  have  been  raised  against 
the  headlong  blindness  of  open  insurrection.  Giacopo,  the 
brother  of  Marco  Querini,  pointed  forcibly  to  the  miseries 
and  crimes  inseparable  from  any  change  effected  by  vio- 
lence ;  he  urged  his  comrades  to  mistrust  their  own  zeal, 
and  he  recommended  the  more  slow  and  more  gentle,  but 
far  more  secure,  more  honourable,  and  more  genuinely 
patriotic  resistance  which  was  legitimately  open  to  them  as 
members  of  the  council.  "  Revolt  and  massacre,"  he  said, 
"  were  but  evil  guides  to  peace  and  order."  His  wise  sug- 
gestions, however,  were  overruled  by  the  precipitance  of  less 
experienced,  perhaps  of  less  disinterested  counsellors  ;  and 
the  passionate,  the  thoughtless,  and  the  ambitious  preferred 
the  redress  which  was  to  be  stormed  by  arms,  to  that  which 
might  be  conciliated  by  argument.  It  was  resolved  to 
obtain  forcible  possession  of  the  Piazza  di  San  Marco  and 
the  ducal  palace,  to  put  the  doge  to  death,  to  dissolve  the 
grand  council,  and  to  replace  it  by  the  ancient  form  of  annual 
election. 

The  16th  of  June  was  named  as  the  day  of  rising  ;  and 
Badouero,  who  possessed  extensive  influence  in  Padua,  the 
cradle  of  his  family,  engaged  the  assistance  of  a  large  body 
of  the  inhabitants  of  that  city,  ever  pleased  with  an  occa- 
sion of  showing  enmity  against  Venice.  Arms  were  to  be 
found  abundantly  in  all  the  houses  of  the  great ;  and  when 

♦  Sandi,v.    Morosini,Ix. 


CONSPIRACY  or   THIEPOLO. 


171 


the  conspirators  mustered  the  roll  of  their  dependants  and 
retainers,  and  added  to  them  the  promised  aid  from  Padua, 
they  felt  assured  of  numerical  superiority  over  the  troops 
of  the  doge.  The  Great  Canal,  which  separated  Venice 
into  two  chief  parts,  was  crossed  by  the  single  bridge 
Rialto,  adjoining  which  stood  the  Palazzo  Qucnni.  The 
occupation  of  this  bridge  was  most  important ;  and  before 
daybreak  on  the  appointed  morning  it  was  secured  by  Thi- 
epolo, to  whom  was  committed  the  attack  on  the  ducal 
palace.  It  had  been  planned  that,  as  soon  as  this  strong- 
hold should  be  forced,  Thiepolo's  division  was  to  remain 
under  arms  in  the  Piazza  di  San  Marco,  till  the  arrival  of 
Badouero  with  his  Paduans.  Then  they  might  jointly 
spread  over  the  remaining  quarters  of  the  city,  seize  the 
arsenal,  and  act  further  as  their  exigencies  required. 

The  morning  of  the  1 6th  was  ushered  in  by  a  violent 
tempest,  and,  during  its  continuance,  amid  vivid  lightning 
and  deluges  of  rain,  the  gathering  took  place  before  the 
Palazzo  Querini.  Whether  from  inability  to  proceed  during 
the  rage  of  the  storm,  or  from  want  of  discipline,  some 
time  was  lost  in  outrages  of  little  avail  towards  the  main 
object,  but  congenial  to  the  instruments  which  were  to 
effect  it ;  and  the  minutes  which  were  consumed  in  the 
pillage  of  some  warehouses,  and  the  destruction  of  some 
public  records,  must  be  counted  as  not  a  little  contributing 
to  the  ultimate  defeat  of  the  enterprise.  At  length  the 
signal  was  given  to  advance,  and  the  bridge  Rialto  being 
crossed,  as  the  narrowness  of  the  streets  admitted  but  a  few 
files  abreast,  two  divisions  were  formed,  which  it  was  in- 
tended should  debouche  upon  the  Piazza  by  different  ave- 
nues. One  of  these  was  intrusted  to  Marco  Querini  and 
his  son  Benedetto  ;  the  other  was  led  by  Thiepolo.  Querini 
arrived  first  at  his  destination,  and  what  was  his  astonish- 
ment at  finding  himself  confronted  by  a  strong  array  of 
regular  soldiery ! 

No  suspicion  of  treachery  attached  to  any  of  the  con^ 
spirators ;  but  the  movements  of  a  large  body  can  seldom 
be  concealed,  and  an  unpopular  government  is  always  keen- 
sighted.  The  frequent  assemblies  in  the  Palazzo  Querini 
had  been  marked  and  reported  to  Gradenigo.  The  move- 
ments on  the  preceding  day  had  excited  special  suspicion, 
which  new  announcements  every  hour  increased ;  and  as 


<  . 


)H 


^P 


..  qtaj^^-^jgaariatetfaaaaifeM 


172 


CONSPIRACY  OF  THIEPOIO. 


the  penetration  of  the  doge  detected  the  approach  of  insur- 
rection, so  his  vigour  promptly  furnished  me;ins  for  its  sup- 
pression. He  assembled  round  him,  during  the  night,  the 
signory,  the  counsellors  of  state,  the  chiefs  of  the  XL.  and 
such  nobles  upon  whose  services  he  could  depend.  He 
summoned  from  the  less  important  posts  of  the  city  all  the 
guards  which  could  be  spared,  and  concentrated  tb.em  on 
the  Piazza  ;  these  were  strengthened  by  the  mechanics  of 
the  arsenal  ;  nnd  almost  at  the  moment  at  which  the  front 
of  Querini's  column  sliowed  itself,  a  large  detachment  from 
the  garrison  of  Chiozza  arrived  by  a  forced  march.  The 
contest  was  bloodily  maintained  till  the  two  Querini  fell, 
and  their  adherents  gave  way.  Thiepolo,  r.dvancirg  by  the 
street  of  the  Clock-tower,  was  encountered  by  the  doge  in 
person  ;  and  learning  the  defeat  of  his  companions,  and 
despairing  of  success,  he  retired  upon  the  bridge.  As  he 
threaded  the  narrow  street  of  La  Mcrzcriay  a  woman  nrmed 
Justina,*  watching  her  oj.-portunity,  dro]>ped  a  heavy  stone 
from  a  lofty  window  as  he  passed.  He  escaped  the  blow  ; 
but  the  head  of  a  page,  who  followed  closely,  and  who  bore 
his  standard,  was  daslied  to  atoms.  Thiepolo,  having 
gained  the  l)ridge,  which  at  that  time  was  framed  of  wood, 
severed  all  communication  by  cutting  if,  and  removing  the 
boats  moored  below  to  the  opposite  baidv.  Then,  fortifying 
himself  in  the  Piazza  di  BiaUo^  he  looked  anxiously  for  a 
junction  with  the  confederates  under  Badouero  from  Piulua. 
In  this  hope  he  was  disa};pointed  :  at  the  mom.ent  of  their 
disembarkation  they  had  been  attacked  by  a  body  of  the 
doge's  guards,  and  meeting  with  a  resolute  conflict  where 
they  had  anticipated  nothing  but  unresisted  plunder,  they 
abandoned  their  leader  and  returned  to  their  vessels.  Ba- 
douero and  such  persons  as  could  lay  claim  to  gentle  blood 
were    immediately   beheaded ;  and  among  tlirm,  Giacopo 

*  GoraMi,  a  veracio'is  ri*p«'  lican  who  vipjtod  Italy  in  179?,  ard  ubiiped 
kirps  and  po|>Hs.  reiicion  aid  government,  under  ihe  full  influence  of  the 
spring-tide  of  1  he  French  revo'ntion.  itjakes  tliis  woman  kill  Thiepolo 
unintentionally,  and  not  hy  a  stone.  The  passaffe  is  an  aniusinjr  hpeci- 
men  of  ai-curacy,?///  vnsc'de  Jli  ins  clwpji  dcsyiinivn  irvitcfcmme  tm- 
prudmte,  termina  In  vie  lie  re  htrns(\\\.  :'55\  The  pension  granted  to 
Justina  sufficiently  proves  that  her  act  was  intentional ;  and  I'ietro  .lus- 
tiniani,  who  has  jriven  a  lively  de«5cripiiori  of  the  conspiracy,  eyprisbly 
calls  the  insirunient  lojus  inclorix  (Lib.  iv.  p.  64).  In  Coryat's 
Crudities  may  be  found  some  particulars  similar  to  these  slated  by 
Gorani, 


SUPPRESSION  OF  THE  CONSPIRACY. 


173 


Querini  suffered  for  his  fidelity  to  an  enterprise  which  he 
disapproved.  The  gibbet  was  erected  for  the  inferior  con- 
spirators, and  many  who  avoided  the  immediate  vengeance 
of  legal  punishment  by  taking  refuge  in  neighbouring  states, 
had  a  price  set  upon  their  heads,  and  were  but  reserved  for 
the  slower  dagger  of  the  assassin.  Thiepolo  had  the  good 
fortune  to  save  himself.  Having  maintained  his  post  for 
some  time  amid  his  barricades,  he  received  from  Gradenigo 
the  announcement  of  an  amnesty,  and  a  proposal  for  nego- 
tiation. Wisely  estimating  by  a  correct  standard  the  heavy 
preponderance  of  chances  against  a  rebellious  subject,  when 
treating  with  an  offended  sovereign,  he  disentangled  him- 
self from  the  toils  thus  spread  for  his  destruction,  and  em- 
barking with  a  few  of  his  most  attached  followers,  escaped 
from  the  Lagune.  His  palace  and  that  of  the  Querini  were 
razed  to  the  ground ;  on  the  site  of  the  latter,  to  stamp  it 
with  ignominy,  were  erected  public  shambles,  and  all  monu- 
inentslnscribed  with  their  names  or  armorial  bearings  were 
•defaced.  A  pension  was  assigned  to  the  woman  who  bad 
thrown  the  stone  ;  and  in  order  to  preserve  the  memory  of 
her  action,  a  banner  was  suspended  from  the  window  at 
which  she  stood,  every  year,  on  the  return  of  the  anniver- 
sary of  the  conspiracy,'*  and'  a  solemn  service  of  thanks- 
giving was  instituted  in  commemoration  of  the  peril  from 
■which  the  republic  had  been  delivered. 

But  the  most  important  consequence  of  the  suppression 
of  this  conspiracy  was  the  voluntary  abandonment  of  their 
own  freedom,  to  which  it  led,  by  that  class  which  had  as 
yet  been  only  employed  in  curtailing  the  freedom  of  others. 
If  the  government  were  to  continue  as  now  framed,  it  was 
manifest  that  some  security  must  be  provided  against  the 
recurrence  of  a  danger  similar  to  that  from  which  it  had 
just  extricated  itself.  Treason  had  been  nurtured  and 
matured  in  the  bosom  of  the  very  capital  without  discovery, 
and  even  without  suspicion.  But  for  the  sagacity  of  one 
man,  the  lapse  of  a  few  hours  more  would  have  witnessed 
the  overthrow  of  the  aristocratical  polity.  And  even  if  it 
could  be  supposed  that  such  a  doge  as  Gradenigo  would 
never  be  wanting  to  the  government,  there  was  little  pru- 
dence in  confiding  to  a  single  arm,  encumbered  with  thfi 

♦  P,  Jostinlani,  vi  sup. 
P2 


<J     •    T.*'fc 


-  nAsf^aMtSa^hSau,'^ 


174 


THE  COUNCIL  OF  X. 


••'    \ 


administration  of  many  other  important  tluties,  a  care  which 
ought  to  engross  the  entire  attention  and  vigilance  of  those 
to  whom  it  was  assigned.  A  commission  was  therei'ore 
appointed  with  extraordinary  powers,  addressed,  in  the  first 
instance,  to  the  extinguishment  of  the  ashes  of  the  late 
insurrection.  Ten  magistrates  (/  Dim),  named  as  a 
criminal  court,  were  invested  with  a  plenary  inquisitorial 
authority,  with  an  entire  sovereignty  ever  every  individual 
in  the  state,  and  with  freedom  from  all  responsibility  and 
appeal.  Their  duration  was  at  first  limited  to  ten  days ; 
but  this  was  six  times  })roionged  for  a  like  period  ;  then  for 
a  year ;  soon  after  for  five ;  next  for  ten  ;  and,  in  the  end, 

the    tribunal,  with  a  great   extension   of   powers, 
•*•  "•     was  declared  to  be  permanent.     These  powers  so 

frequently  and  fearfully  intermingle  themselves  with 
the  course  of  our  future  narrative,  that  we  shall  here  but 
briefly  touch  upon  them.  The  ten  olficcrs  fiom  whom  the 
court  derived  its  title  were  chosen  annually,  at  four  different 
assemblies  of  the  grand  council.  No  two  of  them  might 
be  members  of  the  same  family,  or  even  benr  the  same 
name ;  and  from  the  colour  of  their  robes  of  ceremony, 
they  were  termed  /  Neri,  or  the  black.  To  these,  in  after- 
times,  were  added  also  the  signory,  as  assessors,  teiTned, 
for  a  like  reason,  I  Rossi,  the  red.  In  their  judicial  admin- 
istration, the  members  of  this  council  inquired,  sentenced, 
and  punished,  "according  to  what  they  called  reason  of 
state.  The  public  eye  never  penetrated  the  mystery  o-f 
their  proceedings  ;  the  accused  was  sometimes  not  heard — 
never  confronted  with  witnesses :  the  condemnation  was 
secret  as  the  inquiry ;  the  punishment  undivulged  like 
both."*  Nor  was  this  all :  instituted  solely  for  the  cogni- 
zance of  state  crimes,  this  tribunal  griidually  attributed  to 
itself  the  control  of  every  branch  of  government,  and  exer- 
cised despotic  influence  over  the  questions  of  peace  and 
war,  over  fiscal  enactments,  military  arrangements,  and 
negotiations  with  foreign  powers.  It  annulled  at  pleasure 
the  decrees  of  the  grand  council,  degraded  its  members, 
deposed  and  even  put  to  death  the  chief  magistrate  him- 
self. An  object  alike  of  terror  and  of  detestation  to  those 
whom  it  oppressed  under  the  pretext  of  salutary  guardian- 

*  Hallam.  Middle  Ages,  ch.  iii.  p.  2.  page  342,  vol.  L 


THE  COUNCIL  OF  X. 


175 


ship,  it  yet  prolonged  an  uninterrupted  sway  during  five 
centuries ;  and  our  wonder  at  the  political  problem  of  its 
lonor-continued  existence  is  not  a  little  hcijjhtened  when  it 
IS  remembered  that  the  great  council,  upon  which,  of  all 
other  classes,  it  weighed  with  far  the  most  grievous  burden, 
might,  by  refusing  its  votes  at  any  one  of  the  four  elections 
in  each  year,  have  abolished  its  hateful  yoke  for  ever. 
That  it  did  not  do  so  may  be  attributed  in  the  outset 
to  a  false  view  of  the  nature  of  the  magistracy,  and  to  a 
belief  that  it  was  necessary  for  the  preservation  of  the 
state.  As  its  tyranny  became  more  distinctly  manifest,  it 
may  have  been  protected  by  an  ambitious  but  unworthy 
hope  which  each  noble  cherished,  of  one  day  wielding  its 
immeasurable  powers  with  his  own  hands.  And,  lastly, 
after  a  lapse  of  years  had  so  far  interwoven  it  with  the 
general  polity  as  to  make  it  seem  an  almost  inseparable 
part  of  the  whole,  it  might  be  saved  by  a  mistaken,  but  little 
hi  inieal»le,  reverence  for  antiquity  ;  by  that  fond  clinging  to 
established  institutions  which,  perhaps  not  unwisely,  is 
backward  to  remove  even  an  abuse,  lest  its  extirpation  may 
endanijer  the  entire  fabric  upon  which  it  is  ingrafted.  We 
are  here  seeking  a  cause,  not  justifying  a  fact.  Existence 
itself  may  be  purchased  at  far  too  dear  a  price  :  but  if  ex- 
istence alone  were  all  that  is  demanded  for  the  honour  of  a 
state  and  the  happiness  of  its  subjects,  it  might  not  be  too 
much  to  aflirm,  that  the  long  stability  of  Venice  was  mainly 
owing  to  the  most  remarkable,  the  most  formidable,  and 
the  most  execrable  part  of  her  government — The  Council 

OF  X. 


m 


- -.Xij^l^-^,.^^.^ 


176 


REMOVAL  OF  THE  INTERDICT. 


CHAPTER  VI. 

FROM  A.  D.  1310  TO  A.  D.  1355. 

Removal  of  the  Interdict— War  with  Maslino  della  Scala— Intrigues  of 
the  Da  Carrara— Restoration  of  their  Family  to  Padua— Legend  of  the 
Three  Saints— Revolt  of  Zara— Plague— Third  War  with  Genoa- 
Battle  of  Caristo— Battle  of  ihe  Bosphorus— Mediation  of  Petrarch- 
Battle  of  Cagliari— Genoa  under  the  Protection  of  Visconti,  Archbishop 
of  Milan— War  with  Milan— Battle  of  Sapienza— Marino  Faliero. 


DOGES. 

A.  D. 

PlETRO  GraDENIGO. 

1310 

LII. 

Marino  Giorgi. 

1311 

LIII. 

Giovanni  Soranzo. 

1328 

Lir. 

Francesco  Dandolo. 

1339 

LV. 

Bartolomeo  Gradenigo. 

1343 

LVI. 

Andrea  Dandolo. 

1354 

LVII. 

Makino  Faliero — ^beheaded. 

During  the  reign  of  Giovanni  Soranzo,  Clement  V.  was 
prevailed  upon  to  remove  the  interdict ;  and  popular 
iqn  ^^^^^^  ^^®  attributed  this  reconciliation  with  the  holy 
see  to  the  adroit  or  the  pious  self-abasement  of  the 
Venetian  ambassador,  Francesco  Dandolo.  He  is  said  to  have 
presented  himself  in  a  penitential  garb,  with  an  iron  collar 
fastened  round  his  neck,  at  the  table  of  the  pontiff,  and  to  have 
remained  there  prostrate,  till,  by  tears  and  sighs,  he  had 
extorted  a  favourable  reply  to  his  petition.  While  he  bent 
in  the  attitude  of  supplication,  some  of  the  cardinals  who 
were  present  spurned  him  as  a  dog ;  and  it  has  been  sup- 
posed that  the  sobriquet^  II  Cane,  by  which  he  is  best  known 
to  his  countrymen,  arose  from  this  incident.  The  cardinals 
may,  no  doubt,  have  displayed  the  arrogance  imputed  to 
them,  but  the  surname.  Cane,  to  which  also  they  may,  per- 
haps, have  made  an  opprobrious  allusion,  was  borne  long 
before  by  many  ancestors  of  Dandolo.  The  suppression  of 
a  revolt  in  Candia,  the  recovery  of  Zara,  and  some  short 
and  successful  hostilities  against  Genoa,  were  the  only 


RISE  OF  MASTINO  DELLA  SCALA. 


177 


interruptions  which  disturbed  a  beneficial  repose  of  sixteen 
years  ;  after  which,  the  indignities  endured  by  Fran-    ^   ^^ 
C3SC0  Dandolo,   for  the  sake  of  his  country,  were    jj^y 
repaid  by  an  elevation  to  her  sovereignty.     Under 
his  rule,  the  loss  of  a  naval  action  with  the  Genoese  was 
more  than  balanced  by  a  territorial  acquisition,  the  first 
made  by  Venice  on  fcn-a  firmoy  whicli,  therefore,   merits 
somewhat  more  of  detail  than  the  inconsiderable  transac- 
tions over  which  we  have  just  hastened. 

Among  the  powerful  nobles  whom  the  long  troubles  of 
the  north  of  Italy  had  raised  to  petty  sovereignty,  Mastino 
della  Scala  had  established  one  of  the  largest  principalities. 
Stretching  from  the  Adriatic  to  the  Tuscan  Sea,  it  embraced 
Verona,  Treviso,  Vicenza,  Bassano,  Brescia,  Parma,  Reg- 
gio,  and  Lucca,  and  in  the  end  included  Padua,  wrung 
from  its  lords,  the  family  of  Carrara.  Each  acquisition 
had  raised  against  Mastino"^a  fresh  secret  enemy,  who  coveted 
some  opportunity  of  revenge ;  his  fall,  however,  may  be 
more  justly  attributed  to  his  brother  Alberto,  whom  he  had 
named  governor  of  Padua,  than  to  himself.  False  even 
where  he  affected  to  bestow  confidence,  Alberto  triumphed 
by  force  over  the  domestic  honour  of  Ubertino  da  Carrara, 
during  his  occasional  absence  from  Padua.  Her  wrong 
was  revealed  by  the  injured  wife;  but  the  wily  ItaUan 
dissembled  his  resentment,  listened  with  a  smile  to  the 
unseemly  jests  passed  upon  his  disgrace,  and,  in  spite  of 
sarcasm,  contented Iv  retained,  over  the  helmet  of  his 
escutcheon,  the  two  golden  butfalo  horns,  wreathed  with 
the  eyed  feathers  of  a  peacock,  which  formed  the  crest  of 
his  house.  These  armorial  bearings  served  but  to  remind 
him  of  his  revenge,  long  protracted,  deeply  meditated,  and 
cautiously  planned  in  concert  with  his  uncle  Marsilio.  The 
latter,  while  engaged  on  a  mission  to  Venice,  was  seated 
one  day  next  the  doge,  at  a  public  spectacle  ;  and,  unob- 
served by  others,  he  whispered  in  the  prince's  ear  a  ques- 
tion not  to  be  misunderstood.  "  If  any  one  would  put  you 
in  possession  of  Padua,^  how  would  you  recompense  him  ]" 
"By  giving  him  its  mastery,"  was  the  prompt  reply  ;  and 
on  these  few  words  was  based  an  alliance  which  ended  in 
the  overthrow  of  Della  Scala. 

*  D.!ru,  in  relating  tliis  anecdote,  has  said,  "  Verona;"  but  Padua,  at 
Sauuto  gives  it,  and  ns  the  event  sufficiently  proves,  was  the  city  namect 


178 


ESCAPES  OF  THE  CARRARA. 


By  a  crafty  representation  of  the  great  advantages  to  be 
derived  from  a  trade  in  salt,  Carrara  prevailed  upon  Delia 
Scala  to  establish  some  works  in  that  part  of  his  territories 
which  skirted  the  Lagune ;  and  the  Venetians,  seizing  the 
pretext,  and  loudly  exclaiming  against  this  infringement  of 
their  ancient  monopoly,  marched  thirty  thousand  men  to 
support  their  right  under  the  command  of  Pietro  di  Rozzi, 
who  had  been  expelled  by  Mastino  from  Parma.  This  sys- 
tem of  intrusting  their  armies  to  the  command  of  a  foreigner 
was  constantly  observed  in  future.  But  the  general  was 
not  uncontrolled.  He  was  accompanied  by  two  Venetian 
provveditorij  civilians,  unacquainted  with  the  operations  of 
war ;  who  in  most  cases  appear  to  have  thwarted  and 
retarded  the  speed  indispensable  for  the  success  of  military 
designs,  with  quite  as  much  vexatious  pertinacity  as  was 
exercised  towards  our  own  Marlborough  by  the  Dutch 
deputies  of  later  times.  The  King  of  Bohemia  and  the 
republic  of  Florence  joined  their  arms  against  Delia  Scala, 
and  the  Carrara  guided  their  enterprise  to  a  successful  ter- 
mination. It  was  not  likely  that  the  intrigue  which  they 
had  been  conducting  should  escape  suspicion  by  the  politic 
Mastino.  Though  unacquainted  with  its  precise  details,  he 
knew  enough  to  convince  him  that  the  Carrara  were  dan- 
gerously employed ;  and  he  sent  peremptory  orders  to 
Alberto  for  their  immediate  assassination. 

The  singular  circumstances  attendant  upon  their  more 
than  one  escape  are  related  with  a  lively  air  of  truth  by  the 
chronicler  Gataro.  It  seems  as  if  they  had  rendered  them- 
selves necessary  to  the  pleasures  of  Alberto,  and  that  he 
was  loath,  though  he  had  deeply  wronged  them,  to  relinquish 
their  society.  He  received  Mastino's  instructions  with 
pain;  yet  not  venturing  to  disobey  them,  he  invited  the 
Carrara  to  his  palace,  and  posted  bravoes  at  the  foot  of  the 
great  staircase,  with  orders  to  despatch  them  as  they 
mounted  it.  It  was  late  on  a  summer's  night  when  the 
messenger  found  the  intended  victims  in  their  garden,  half 
undressed,  and  preparing  for  bed.  Having  left  Alberto  but 
a  short  time  before,  they  expressed  some  surprise  at  this 
hasty  recall ;  but,  mounting  on  the  same  horse  in  their 
slippers  and  loose  attire,  they  rode  to  the  palace.  Alberto 
was  standing  in  a  balcony  to  witness  their  death ;  and 
Marsilio,  looking  up  as  he  rode  under  it,  called  out  in  a  gay 


THE  CARRARA  REGAIN  PADUA. 


179 


tone  of  familiarity,  "  Che  Diavolo  I  what  do  you  want  now? 
we  have  but  just  left  you,  and  we  wished  to  get  some  rest 
in  bed.  Do  you  mean  to  keep  us  up  all  night  as  usual  1" 
Their  lives  were  saved  by  this  easy  sally ;  touched  by 
which,  Alberto  relented,  and  felt  unable  to  drain  the  blood 
of  his  boon  companions.  He  hastily  desired  them  to  return 
— "  there  was  some  mistake — he  had  not  sent  for  them." 
On  the  morrow  he  showed  them  Mastino's  letter;  and 
upon  their  protestations  of  innocence  he  embraced  them, 
with  an  assurance  that  he  thought  his  brother  foolish  in 
seeking  the  diminution  of  his  friends.  Mastino,  still  re- 
solved on  their  destruction,  despatched  new  orders  to  Padua. 
The  messenger  was  a  confidential  attendant ;  and  he  was 
strictly  enjoined  not  to  deliver  the  letter  which  he  bore  into 
any  hands  but  those  of  Alberto  himself.  On  his  arrival  he 
found  the  governor  engaged  at  chess,  while  the  Carrara 
were  looking  on.  Alberto  inquired  after  Mastino's  health  ; 
and  CHI  beinff  informed  that  he  had  sent  him  a  letter,  he 
desired  Marsilio  to  read  it ;  but  the  messenger,  faithful  to 
his  trust,  refused  to  deliver  up  the  despatch,  and  informed 
the  governor  of  the  precise  orders  which  he  had  received. 
The  game  was  now  finished ;  but  Alberto,  impatient  to 
commence  another  took  the  letter,  and  handed  it  to  Marsilio. 
At  the  conclusion  of  his  second  game  he  carelessly  inquired 
the  contents  ;  and  was  satisfied  by  hearing  that  his  brother 
had  written  about  the  purchase  of  some  foreign  falcons. 
Meantime  the  Carrara  hastily  communicated  with  the  com- 
mander  of  the  allies  ;  and  on  the  day  following  their  escape 
from  this  great  danger,  they  opened  the  gates  of  Padua,  and 
transferred  it  to  their  friends.  After  the  loss  of  this  chief 
city  the  fall  of  Delia  Scala  was  rapid ;  and  betrayed  and 
pressed  on  every  side,  he  accepted  a  treaty  dictated  by 
Venice,  which  stripped  him  of  the  greater  part  of  his 
dominions.  The  republic,  having  fulfilled  her  engagement 
with  Marsilio  da  Carrara,  who  did  not  long  survive, 
retained  for  herself  onlv  the  districts  of  Treviso  and 
Bassano ;  but  these  were  enough  to  work  a  funda- 
mental change  in  her  hitherto  insular  policy,  and  to  involve 
her  in  a  long  series  of  perilous  warfare  for  comparatively 
unimportant  possessions. 

On  the  death  of  the  elder  Carrara  the  chief  authority  in 
Padua  became  vested  in  his  nephew  Ubertino.     The  rest- 


A.  D. 

1338. 


180 


SEIZURE  CF  VENETIAN  SENATORS. 


lessness  of  his  ambition  soon  rcnJered  him  suspected  at 
A^enice ;  and  there  were  not  wanting  many  voices  in  the 
senate  to  denounce  him  as  a  dangerous  enemy.  He  is 
accused  of  having  employed  the  stiletto,  which  had  already 
become  a  powerful  engine  in  Italian  politics,  to  silence  these 
opponents.  On  one  occasion  also  lie  acquired  material 
strength  by  an  outrage  most  daring  indeed,  but  of  a  less 
dark  character  than  assassination.  Having  learned  the 
names  of  the  senators  most  opposed  to  his  interests,  he 
seized  them  by  night,  and  hurried  them  bound,  gagged,  and 
blindfolded  in  gondolas  to  Padua.  There,  in  his  own  palace, 
he  repeated  to  the  astonished  prisoners  the  arguniciits,  the 
very  words,  which  they  had  employed  against  him  in  the 
councils,  with  which  he  had  become  acquainted  through  his 
spies.  At  first  he  sternly  threatened  death;  till,  having 
succeeded  in  striking  terror,  he  gradually  relaxed  the 
menace,  and  granted  them  liberty,  under  an  oath  that  they 
would  bury  the  adventure  in  secrecy,  and  for  the  luture 
adopt  a  policy  more  consonant  with  his  wishes.  On  the 
same  night  they  were  reconvcyed  to  their  homes  ;  but,  on 
parting,*Carrara  warned  them  of  the  dangers  of  perjury; 
siffnificantly  implying,  that  he  who  could  find  agents  lor 
their  abduction,  had  a  much  speedier  vengeance  at  his  com- 
mand ;  and  that  he  could  readily  employ  daggers  if  they 
either  betrayed  or  deceived  hhn.  'l  he  threat  was  eiTectual. 
The  transaction  was  never  revealed  by  the  Venetian  senators ; 
nor  was  it  at  all  known  till  many  years  after  its  occurrence, 
and  then  only  bv  the  dying  confession  of  some  of  the  ruf- 
fians who  had  "been  engaged  in  its  execution.  Gataro,* 
who  has  preserved  this  remarkable  anecdote,  implies  the 
full  success  resulting  from  Vbertino's  bold  act  by  stating, 
that  during  his  lifetime  the  signory  of  Venice  said  nothing 

more  of  war. 

The  reign  of  the  succeeding  doge,  Bartolomeo 
vJ«iQ  Gradenigo,  presents  a  continued  scene  of  turbulence 
^^^^'  and  bloodshed  in  Candia.  We  willingly  hasten 
over  this  uninteresting  and  unnecessary  recital;  but  we 
shall  pause  on  an  incident  of  another  character,  strongly 
impregnated  with  the  superstitious  temper  of  the  age.  It 
must  be  borne  in  mind,  that  the  legend  which  we  are  about 

*  Apud  Muritori,  xvii.  32. 


LEGEND  OP  THE  THREE  SAINTS. 


181 


to  produce  is  recorded  by  more  than  one  authentic  chroni- 
cler, and  that  it  was  sufficiently  believed  to  give  birth  to  a 
public  religious  ceremony.  In  the  year  1341,  an  inun- 
dation of  many  days'  continuance  had  raised  the  water  three 
cubits  higher  than  it  had  ever  before  been  seen  in  Venice ; 
and  during  a  stormy  night,  while  the  flood  appeared  to  be 
still  increasing,  a  poor  old  fisherman  sought  what  refiige  he 
could  find  by  mooring  his  crazy  bark  close  to  the  Riva  dt 
Sdn  Marco.*  The  storm  was  yet  raging,  when  a  person 
approached,  and  offered  him  a  good  fare  if  he  would  but 
ferry  him  over  to  San  Giorgio  Maggiorc.  "  Who,"  said 
the  fisherman,  "  can  reach  San  Giorgio  on  such  a  night  as 
this?  Heaven  forbid  that  I  should  try!"  But,  as  the 
stranger  earnestly  persisted  in  his  request,  and  promised  to 
guard  him  from  harm,  he  at  last  consented.  The  passenger 
landed;  and  having  desired  the  boatman  to  wait  a  little, 
returned  with  a  companion,  and  ordered  him  to  row  to  San 
Nicolo  di  Lido.  The  astonished  fisherman  again  refused, 
till  he  was  prevailed  upon  by  a  further  confident  assurance 
of  safety,  and  excellent  pay.  At  Saji  Nicolo  they  picked  up 
a  third  person,  and  then  instructed  the  boatman  to  proceed 
to  the  two  castles  at  Lido.  Though  the  waves  ran  fearfully 
high,  the  old  man  by  this  time  had  become  accustomed  to 
them ;  and,  moreover,  there  was  something  about  his  mys- 
terious crew  which  either  silenced  his  fears,  or  diverted 
them  from  the  tempest  to  his  companions.  Scarcely  had 
they  gained  the  strait,  when  they  saw  a  galley,  rather  flying 
than  sailing  along  the  Adriatic,  manned  (if  we  may  so  say) 
with  devils,  who  seemed  hurrying  with  fierce  and  threaten- 
ing gestures  to  sink  Venice  in  the  deep.  The  sea,  which 
had  hitherto  been  furiously  agitated,  in  a  moment  became 
unruffled ;  and  the  strangers,  crossing  themselves,  conjured 
the  fiends  to  depart.  At  the  word  the  demoniacal  galley 
vanished,  and  the  three  passengers  were  quietly  landed  at 
the  spots  at  which  each  respectively  had  been  taken  up. 
The  boatman,  it  seems,  was  not  quite  easy  about  his  fare ; 
and,  before  parting,  he  implied  pretty  clearly  that  the  sight 
of  this  miracle  after  all  would  be  but  bad  pay.  "  You  aro 
right,  my  friend,"  said  the  first  passenger,  "  go  to  the  dog© 
and  the  procuratori,  and  assure  them  that,  but  for  us  three, 

♦  Riva.  a  footwav  running  along  the  banks  of  a  rio,  or  small  canal. 
Vol.  I.— Q 


182 


SIEGE  OF  ZARA. 


Venice  would  have  been  drowned.  I  am  St.  Mark ;  my 
two  comrades  are  St.  George  and  St.  Nicolas.  Desire  the 
magistrates  to  pay  you ;  and  add,  that  all  this  trouble  has 
arisen  from  a  schoolmaster  at  San  Felice,  who  first  bargained 
with  the  Devil  for  his  soul,  and  then  hanged  himself  in  de- 
spair." The  fisherman,  who  seems  to  have  had  all  his  wits 
about  him,  answered,  that  he  might  tell  that  story,  but  he 
much  doubted  whether  he  should  be  believed  :  upon  which 
St.  Mark  pulled  from  his  finger  a  gold  ring,  worth  about  five 
ducats,  saying,  "  Show  them  this  ring,  and  bid  them  look 
for  it  in  my  treasury,  whence  it  will  be  found  missing." 
On  the  morrow  the  fisherman  did  as  he  was  told.  The  ring 
was  discovered  to  be  absent  from  its  usual  custody,  and  the 
fortunate  boatman  not  only  received  his  fare,  but  an  annual 
pension  to  boot.  Moreover,  a  solemn  procession  and  thanks- 
giving were  appointed  in  gratitude  to  the  three  holy  corpses, 
which  had  rescued  from  such  calamity  the  land  affording 

them  burial.* 

It  was  under  the  dogeship  of  Gradenigo  that  our  own  Ed- 
ward III.  endeavoured  to  negotiate  a  maritime  alliance  with 
Venice  against  Philip  of  France.  His  chief  hope  was 
founded  on  the  assistance  which  the  Genoese  had  afforded 
his  rival.  But  the  republic  had  need  of  all  her  naval 
force  to  meet  the  insurrection  of  the  Candiotes,  and  she 
declined  the  treaty.  Gradenigo  was  succeeded  by 
Andrea  Dandolo,  who,  amid  the  cares  of  an  active 
reign,  found  time  to  reform  the  judicial  code,  and 
also  to  narrate  the  actions  of  his  predecessors.  His  Chroni- 
cle, which  we  have  already  described  as  devoid  of  interest 
to  the  general  reader,  is,  nevertheless,  invaluable  as  a 
standard  of  reference  ;  and  we  owe  it,  if  nothing  more,  at 
least  the  praise  of  accuracy. 

Zara,  ever  chafing  against  the  Venetian  yoke,  and  finding 
in  the  Hungarians  ready  abettors  of  each  new  revolt,  once 
more  called  for  chastisement  during  this  reign.  In  a  siege 
of  eighteen  months,  Venice  employed  twenty-seven  thou- 
sand men,  and  the  almost  incredible  powers  of  that  me- 
chanical artillery  which,  ere  long,  was  to  be  superseded  by 
the  simpler,  yet  more  destructive  force  of  gunpowder.  Per- 
rieres  are  here  mentioned,  constructed  by  Francesco  della 

*  Sanuto,  apud  Muratori,  xxii  608. 


A.  n. 
1343. 


THE    PLAGUE. 


183 


Barche,  which  threw  masses  of  stone  weighing  three  thou- 
sand pounds,  and  heaved  from  the  batteries  of  the  besiegers 
such  rocks  as  might  have  been  used  in  that  fabled  combat 
in  which  Ossa  was  piled  on  Olynjpus.  The  artificer  him- 
self is  said  to  have  fallen  a  victim  to  his  own  inventions ; 
and  by  the  accidental  discharge  of  one  of  his  instruments 
of  death,  to  have  been  launched  headlong  against  the  walls 
which  he  was  preparing  to  overwhelm.  During  the  tardy 
operations  of  this  investment,  Louis  of  Anjou,  King  of 
Hungary,  advanced  to  the  relief  of  the  garrison  ;  and  on 
his  total  defeat,  the  glories  of  Marino  Faliero,  the  Venetian 
commander,  were  raised  to  their  full  height.  For  a  wliile, 
the  enemy  hemmed  him  within  the  lines  which  he  had  con- 
structed for  his  defence,  and  so  far  intercepted  his  inland 
communications,  that  he  was  obliged  to  depend  upon 
Venice  even  for  his  supplies  of  water.  But  a  battle,  unad- 
visedly risked  by  the  Hungarians,  released  him  from  this 
jeopardy.  Eight  thousand  of  the  assailants  perished  in 
Faliero's  lines,  and  Zara,  deprived  of  all  hope,  surrendered 
at  discretion. 

The  plague  which  ravaged  Italy  in  1348,  like  that  of 
Athens,  and  from  a  similar  cause,  has  become  one 
of  the  landmarks  of  history  ;  and  Boccaccio,  no  less  ,^43 
than  Thucydides,  is  indebted  for  the  powerful  effect 
of  his  terrific  picture  to  his  fidelity  in  representing  the  ca- 
lamitous scenes  of  which  he  was  an  eyewitness.  Venice  bore 
her  share  in  the  general  suflfering.  In  the  early  part  of  the 
year,  an  earthquake,  which  visited  her  at  intervals  for  fif- 
teen days  successively,  overthrew  many  buildings,  and 
spread  terror  among  her  citizens.  A  similar  convulsion 
had  been  the  forerunner  of  pestilence  in  the  far  distant  king- 
dom of  Casan  ;  bat  the  fiery  gulfs  which  there  swallowed 
up  the  trembling  inhabitants — the  showers  of  unknown  and 
monstrous  insects,  which,  if  they  fell  alive,  destroyed  by 
their  venomous  stings  ;  if  dead,  by  the  corruption  which 
they  exhaled — the  stupefaction  which  so  paralyzed  both 
men  and  women  that  they  became  motionless  as  statues, 
a  judgment  which  we  are  assured  would  have  converted 
the  infidel  hearts  of  their  khans,  but  that  they  perceived 
Christians  to  be  affected  in  like  manner  with  themselves — 
all  these  marvels  were  confined  to  Tartary.*     Sweeping 

•  Giovanni  VUIani,  lax.  <i3.'  apud  Muratori,  TiiL 


I 


:l 


184 


THIRD  GENOESE  WAR. 


over  the  Levant,  the  plague  desolated  Syria,  Chaldea,  and 
Mesopotamia.  It  then  passed  to  Egypt,  and  the  Archi- 
pelago ;  and  Turkey,  Greece,  Annenia,  and  Russia  cow- 
ered beneath  its  scourge.  Some  Genoese,  who  sought 
escape  from  the  Black  Sea,  conveyed  it  to  Sicily,  and  hence 
it  spread  rapidly  over  the  neighbouring  continent,  already 
a  prey  to  famine.  When  it  had  once  surmounted  the  Alps, 
Brabant  was  the  sole  district  of  Europe  unvisited  by  its 
contagion  ;  and  even  the  perpetual  snows  of  Iceland  formed 
no  barriers  against  its  depopulating  fury.  During  the  six 
months  which  it  raged  at  Venice,  it  is  believed  that  more 
than  half  her  population  was  destroyed  ;  and  m  order  to 
recruit  her  loss,  the  rights  of  citizenship  were  decreed  to 
foreign  settlers,  after  two  years'  residence.  Yet  she  was 
afflicted  in  far  less  proportion  than  many  of  her  fellow-suf- 
ferers. Florence  mourned  a  hundred  thousand  of  her  citi- 
lens  ;  at  Naples  sixty  thousand,  at  Genoa  forty  thousand 
perished  ;  and  in  the  Sicilian  Trapani,  not  one  individual 

remained  alive !  ,   -r  ^v    v      i     ^ 

Pestilence  was  succeeded  by  war ;  and  if  the  hand  ol 
nature,  in  her  wrath,  appeared  to  level  greater  numbers  at  a 
single  stroke,  the  harvest  of  death  reaped  by  the  sword,  as 
it  was  much  longer  in  gathering,  so  was  it  eventually  far 
more  abundant.  A  private  fray  between  a  Tartar  and  a 
European  merchant,  at  Tana,  near  Azoph,  in  which  a  blow 
was  avenged  by  the  immediate  death  of  the  former,  kindled 
the  indignation  of  the  natives.  They  rose  in  a  body,  plun- 
dered the  factories,  and  assassinated  many  of  the  residents. 
In  order  to  punish  this  violence,  the  Venetians  and  Ge- 
noese mutually  agreed  to  suspend  all  commercial  inter- 
course with  the  offending  coast ;  but  the  former,  disregard- 
ing their  engagement,  thought  to  profit  by  an  entire  en- 
grossment of  the  abandoned  trade,  and  renewed  it  for  them- 
Bclves  singly.  This  perfidious  attempt  was  justly  met  by 
an  embargo  on  all  their  ships  engaged  in  the  commerce  of 
the  Black  Sea ;  and  though  as  yet  ill  recovered  from  her 

exhaustion  by  the  plague,  Venice,  in  return,  des- 
tqJo     patched  a  fleet  to  the  Archipelago,  to  revenge  the 

affront.  A  bloody  engagement  between  nearly  equal 
forces,  in  the  Bay  of  Caristo,  in  Negropont,  terminated  to 
the  advantage  of  the  Venetians  ;  but  their  success  increased 
the  animosity  rather  than  dimimshed  the  encigies  of  the 


BATTLE  OF  THE  BOSPHORUS. 


185 


A.  D. 

1351. 


defeated.  Venice  sought  to  strengthen  herself  by  new  alli- 
ances ;  and  Peter  IV.,  who  filled  the  throne  of  Arragon, 
at  that  time  the  third  inaritimc  state  in  Europe,  and  who 
disputed  the  possession  of  Sardinia  and  Corsica  with  the 
Genoese,  willingly  listened  to  the  overtures  of  their  rivals, 
concluding  with  them  a  treaty  which  stipulated  the  provi- 
sion of  one-and-tw^cnty  galleys  for  the  service  of  the  repub- 
lic. In  the  East,  where  Cantacuzenus  was  greatly  irritated 
against  the  Genoese,  Venice  obtained  yet  further  aid  ;  but 
the  whole  extent  of  force  which  the  falling  empire  was  able 
to  provide,  as  its  contingent  to  the  league,  amounted  to  no 
more  than  eight  poor  galleys. 

The  combined  fleets  of  Arragon  and  Venice,  on  entering 
the  Archipelago,  were  shattered  and  dispersed  by  a 
tempest ;  and  the  Genoese  thus  gained  time  to  in- 
crease their  preparations.  After  some  unimportant 
manoeuvres  w^hich  occupied  the  remainder  of  the  year,  early 
in  the  ensuing  February,  the  allies  passed  the  Dar- 
danelles, and  with  seventy-five  galleys  under  the  .oc« 
command  of  Nicolo  Pisani,  approached  the  Bospho- 
rus.  Against  this  force  the  Genoese  Doria  could  oppose 
no  more  than  sixty-four  sail,  but  the  numbers  were  soon 
rendered  more  nearly  equal  by  the  dastardly  flight  of  the 
Greeks  ;  and  the  Genoese  ships  of  that  period  were  of 
larger  frame  than  those  of  their  enemies.  The  battle 
began  towards  sunset  and  at  the  commencement  of  h 
stonn  ;  and  the  imagination  can  scarcely  picture  a  scene  of 
greater  horror  than  must  have  been  presented  by  the  close- 
ness and  ferocity  of  a  naval  engagement  before  the  inven- 
tion of  gunpowder,  when  ship  fought  with  ship,  and  man 
with  man.  To  this,  in  the  present  instance,  must  be  added 
the  darkness  of  a  winter's  night,  in  which  friend  was  but  ill 
distinguished  from  foe,  and  no  doubt  was  often  mistaken 
for  such ;  a  sea  at  all  times  perilous  from  rapid  currents  and 
sunken  rocks ;  and  a  hurricane  which  now  increased  its 
dangers  a  myriad-fold.  Morning  at  length  rose  upon  the 
field  of  carnage,  and  amid  the  shattered  hulks  and  floating 
corpses  which  shrouded  the  Sea  of  Marmora,  each  party 
could  more  easily  discover  vestiges  of  its  own  loss  than  of  tri- 
umph over  the  enemy.  Nineteen  galleys  were  missing 
from  the  Genoese  fleet ;  of  these,  thirteen  had  been  dashed 
upon  the  rocks,  and  six  carried  down  the  channel  of  the 

Q2 


^n 


188 


LETTER  OF  PETRARCH. 


Bosphorus.  Ten  of  the  Arragonese,  and  fourteen  of  the 
Venetians,  had  been  taken  and  destroyed.  The  first,  es- 
pecially, had  fought  most  bravely,  and  much  of  their  disas- 
ter was  to  be  attributed  to  their  unacquaintance  with  the 
intricacies  of  the  coast.  Eighteen  hundred  prisoners  and 
two  thousand  slain  was  the  loss  of  the  confederates  ;  and 
the  conquerors  had  purchased  their  doubtful  victory  at  a 
scarcely  less  terrible  sacrifice  of  life  ;  for  we  are  assured  that 
of  the  Genoese  nobles  alone  seven  hundred  perished.  But 
for  the  retreat  of  Pisani,  the  battle  might,  perhaps,  have  been 
esteemed  drawn  ;  but  his  squadron  was  too  much  disabled  to 
permit  him  to  renew  the  combat,  though  the  point  was 
strongly  urged  by  the  admiral  of  the  Catalans,  Ponsio  de 
Santa  Paz.  That  brave  officer  escaped  the  slaughter  of  the 
battle  but  to  encounter  a  more  melancholy  fate.  Unable 
to  survive  his  defeat,  when  deprived  of  all  hope  of  retriev- 
ing it,  he  died  within  a  few  days,  brokenhearted  and  de- 
spairing. 

All  Europe  regretted  this  unnatural  contest  of  the  maritime 
republics.  The  holy  see  interj^osed  its  mediatorial  offices, 
but  in  vain  ;  and  a  name  ftir  more  reverenced  by  posterity 
than  that  either  of  the  sixth  Clement  or  the  sixth  Innocent, 
is  transmitted  to  us  in  the  list  of  those  who  endeavoured  to 
re-establish  peace.  Petrarch,  during  a  long  residence  at 
Padua,  had  occasionally  visited  the  Lagune,  and  his  imagi- 
nation appears  to  have  been  profoundly  impressed  by  the 
singularity  and  the  beauty  of  Venice.  With  Andrea  Dan- 
dolo,  he  formed  an  intimate  union,  and  their  mutual  taste 
for  literature  soon  ripened  into  close  friendship.  While  the 
Venetians  were  renewing  their  preparations,  he  addressed  a 
letter  to  the  doge  on  the  17th  of  March  1351,  depicting,  in 
florid  and  rhetorical  language,  tlie  miseries  of  war.  He 
lamented  forcibly  the  disunion  of  two  cities  planted  by  nature 
as  the  very  eyes  of  Italy  ;  and  he  prophesied  that  Europe, 
by  their  contention,  must  lose  her  dominion  of  the  seas. 
"  Would  to  heaven,"  he  exclaimed,  "  that  your  arms  were 
turned  against  Damascus,  Susa,  or  Memphis  !  Why  renew 
in  Ausonia  the  bloody  fraternal  conflict  of  Thebes  ]"  Then 
enlarging  upon  the  glory  of  Venice,  he  stated,  with  an  ob- 
scurity which  it  were  idle  to  attempt  to  dispel,  that  many 
years  before  her  foundation  as  a  city,  he  not  only  found  her 
jiame,  but  that  also  of  one  of  her  doges,  already  rendered 


BATTLE  OP  CAGLIARI. 


187 


illustrious.  His  indignation  at  the  Barbarian  alliances  which 
each  republic  had  contracted  is  forcibly  expressed  ;  and  he 
dwells  feehngly  upon  the  horror  of  all  transalpine  violations 
of  Italy.  To  prevent  the  evils  which  he  foresaw  would  re- 
sult from  perseverance  in  their  career  of  headlong  enmity, 
he  figuratively  threw  himself  at  the  feet  of  the  chiefs  of 
the  two  nations,  and  bedewed  them  with  tears.  "  Cast 
away  your  weapons,  embrace  in  friendship,  unite  your  stan- 
dards and  your  hearts.  So  shall  both  the  ocean  and  the 
Euxine  be  opened  to  you.  The  Indian,  the  Briton,  and  the 
Ethiopian  shall  tremble  before  your  arms ;  and  your  ships 
shall  navigate  securely  to  Trebisond,  to  the  Fortunate 
Islands,  to  the  unknown  Thule — yes,  even  to  either  Pole.  Be 
but  at  peace  between  yourselves,  and  no  fear  can  assail  you 
from  elsewhere."  It  was  not  likely  that  Dandolo  would  be 
much  affected  by  this  wordy  interference.  He  replied,  how- 
ever, in  good  set  terms,  extolling  the  composition,  but  con- 
futing the  arguments  of  Petrarch.  The  utmost  bitterness 
of  hatred  to  the  Genoese  breathed  through  the  remainder 
of  his  letter.  They  are  not  brothers,  he  says,  but  domestic 
enemies  ^  the  most  pestilent  of  all  Nature's  works.  Earth, 
sea,  all  nations  reject  and  detest  them  ;  and  it  is  no  marvel 
that  they  are  at  perpetual  enmity  with  others,  when  they 
jire  for  ever  torn  by  disunion  among  themselves. 

The  combatants,  meantime,  had  recruited  their  strength, 
and  thought  only  of  mutual  defiance.  Grimaldi,  the 
new  Genoese  admiral,  commanded  sixty  galleys  in  the  A'cq* 
spring  of  1353,  and  detached  a  squadron  to  insult 
Venice  in  her  own  gulf.  This  affront  was  speedily  and 
bitterly  revenged.  The  rendezvous  of  the  allied  fleets  was 
fixed  off  Loiera,  in  Sardinia  ;  and  seventy  vessels  were  pre- 
pared to  re-establish  the  tarnished  glory  of  Pisani.  The 
Genoese  were  ill  provided  with  intelligence ;  and  not 
being  aware  that  the  Catalans  had  eflected  a  junction  with 
their  confederates,  they  thought  to  surprise  Pisani  at  ad- 
vantage. On  doubling  one  of  the  capes  of  the  bay  of  Cag- 
liari,  they  were  confirmed  in  their  delusion,  for  the  Venetian 
admiral,  in  order  more  surely  to  entice  them  to  an  engage- 
ment, in  which  he  felt  confident  of  superiority,  had  con- 
cealed a  portion  of  his  force,  and  remained  with  the  rest  at 
anchor.  It  was  not  till  Grimaldi  had  advanced  too  far  to 
be  able  to  decline  battle,  that  he  discovered  his  error :  and 


188 


DEFEAT  OF  THE  GENOESE. 


it  was  then  seen  that  the  enemy  not  only  greatly  outnum- 
bered him,  but  that  three  of  the  Arragonese  vessels  {cocche) 
were  of  much  larger  bulk  than  ordinary,  and  that  the  Vene- 
tian galleys,  besides  their  full  complement  of  mariners,  were 
manned  also  with  a  formidable  body  of  soldiers.  Each  line, 
to  render  itself  more  firm  against  the  shock  of  its  opponent, 
linked  ship  to  ship,  by  lashing  huge  chains  round  their  masts 
and  carcasses,  and  a  few  skirmishers  only  were  left  disen- 
gaged at  either  extremity.  The  wind  had  hitherto  been 
favourable  to  the  Genoese,  who  gladly  perceived  that  the 
huge  Catalans  of  which  they  felt  most  dread,  being  unpro- 
vided with  rowage,  must  remain  idle  and  motionless  spec- 
tators. But  the  gale  changed  suddenly,  almost  at  the  mo- 
ment at  which  the  hostile  lines  touched  each  other's  sides  ; 
and  the  giant  galleys,  slipping  their  cables  and  setting  full 
sail,  bore  down  upon  the  three  outermost  Genoese,  sank 
them,  and  passed  on  to  the  next  ships.  Grimaldi  made 
signals  to  that  portion  of  his  fleet  not  yet  engaged  to  gain 
the  open  sea,  and  turn  the  Venetian  line.  The  manoeuvre 
was  executed,  but  the  combat  was  not  renewed  :  whether 
from  the  insubordination  of  their  men,  or  from  hopelessness 
of  success,  the  Genoese  crowded  all  sail  with  the  nineteen 
ships  which  had  been  freed,  and  returned  to  their  harbour. 
The  thirty  which  were  deserted  by  them  surrendered. 
Nearly  five  thousand  prisoners  fell  into  the  hands  of  the 
conquerors  ;  and  the  29th  of  August,  the  anniversary  of  her 
former  victory  at  Caristo,  might  be  remembered  as  one  of 
the  brightest  days  of  glory  in  the  naval  annals  of  Venice, 
if  it  were  not  unhappily  polluted  by  the  indelible  infamy 
attaching  to  the  massacre  of  her  captives. 

The  return  of  Grimaldi  spread  consternation  through 
Genoa.  Whether  from  anxiety  to  escape  the  public  gaze,  or 
from  having  outsailed  the  remainder  of  his  squadron,  the  dis- 
comfited admiral  entered  the  gulf  with  his  own  galley  singly, 

nempe  und  nave,  relictis 
Post  tergum  sociis, 

and  for  a  while  this  was  supposed  to  be  the  only  survivor 
of  the  combat.  Disaster  increased  the  virulence  of  the  fac- 
tions by  which  the  republic  was  already  convulsed ;  and 
the  populace,  despairing  of  safety  under  the  existing  govern- 
ment, adopted  the  vulgar  but  perhaps  natural  belief,  that 


EMBASSY  OF  PETRARCH. 


189 


change  of  rulers  must  be  accompanied  by  change  of  fortune 
also.  Of  the  Lombard  princes,  no  one  at  that  time  seemed 
to  afford  greater  promise  of  protection  than  Giovanni  Vis- 
conti,  Archbishop  of  Milan.  Already  lord  of  sixteen  pow- 
erful cities,  he  had  recently  annexed  Bologna  to  his  domin- 
ions by  purchase  ;  and  it  was  to  him  that  the  citizens  of 
Genoa  resorted  on  the  'deposition  of  their  doge.  Content 
to  sacrifice  liberty  for  the  hope  of  revenge,  they  proffered 
their  ready  hands  to  his  chains,  and  joyfully  received  the 
governor,  whom  he  despatched  with  sixteen  thousand  men, 
to  defend  or  to  overawe  them,  as  should  first  seem  necessary. 
The  Genoese  thirsted  once  more  to  encounter  their  detested 
rivals  ;  and  Visconti  supplied  them  liberally  with  stores  and 
money  for  the  re-equipment  of  their  fleet.  He  did  not, 
however,  plunge  rashly  into  war;  but,  on  the  contrary, 
sought  reconciliation  with  Venice.  Petrarch  again  exerted 
himself  to  maintain  peace,  and  this  time  in  an  official  char- 
acter. His  patron,  Visconti,  appointed  him  especial  am- 
bassador to  Venice,  to  negotiate  peace  between  the  repub- 
lics ;  or,  if  he  failed  in  this  main  object,  at  least  to  stipulate 
for  the  neutrality  of  Milan ;  but  in  neither  attempt  was  he 
Buccessfiil.  Her  recent  triumphs  had  increased  the  bitter- 
ness with  which  Venice  regarded  her  long-continued  enemy ; 
she  refused  to  treat  with  Genoa,  and  she  denounced  war 
against  the  archbishop.  "  My  colleague,"  says  Petrarch, 
in  another  letter  to  Dandolo,  "  harangued  the  council  atler  I 
had  finished.  His  martial  tone  of  eloquence  left  nothing 
wanting ;  but  we  were  unable  to  open  their  closed  ears, 
and  to  touch  their  hardened  hearts.  If  Cicero  himself  had 
addressed  them,  he  would  have  failed  in  his  purpose."  He 
concluded  by  urging  the  doge  to  look  about  him  with  his  lynx 
eyes,  and  to  weigh  well  the  comparative  produce  of  peace 
and  war.  Dandolo,  in  his  answer,  retorts  Cicero  upon  his 
correspondent,  and,  having  declined  his  advice,  pressed  him 
to  continue  writing  for  his  recreation.* 

Doria  and  Pisani  were  again  to  meet  in  arms,  more  eager 
to  inflict  injury  than  to  avert  it.  The  fleet  of  each  left  its 
native  shores  defenceless,  while  engaged  in  ravaging  those 
of  its  enemy.  Venice,  of  the  two,  was  far  the  greater  suf- 
ferer ;  for  her  merchantmen  were  chased,  and  captured  ia 

*  Variarvm,  Ep.  3,4. 


190 


BATTLE  OF  SAPIENZA. 


DEFEAT  OF  THE  VENETIANS. 


101 


her  very  harbours  ;  Istria  was  laid  waste,  and  Parenzo  was 
reduced  to  ashes.  The  alarmed  citizens  prepared  for  the 
assault  of  their  own  banks ;  the  aggere  was  thronged  with 
sentinels,  and  a  ponderous  chain  was  stretched  between 
the  two  castles  which  now  protect  the  entrance  of  the 
port  at  Lido.  Pisani  hastily  obeyed  a  summons  of  recall ; 
but  it  had  not  been  the  intention  of  the  Genoese  admiral, 
nor  was  he  indeed  in  sufficient  force,  to  do  more  than  to 
strike  terror  ;  and  before  the  return  of  the  Venetian  fleet 
he  had  quitted  the  Adriatic.  Chagrined  at  this  unexpected 
daring  of  the  Genoese,  and  deeply  mortified  by  the  insult 
offered  to  his  capital,  the  spirit  of  Dandolo  sank  under 
anxiety  and  shame.  He  died  before  the  close  of  the  year, 
and  was  interred,  the  last  doge  to  whom  that  honour  was 
permitted,  in  the  cathedral  of  St.  Mark. 

His  successor  was  Marino  Faliero,  the  conqueror  of  Zara ; 
and  his  reign,  of  so  dark  a  celebrity  in  its  close,  was 
.^p.  *  unfortunate  at  its  very  commencement.  The  hostile 
'  fleets  sought  each  other  ineffectually  through  the 
Archipelago ;  and  Pisani  at  length  took  up  a  station  in  the 
harbour  of  Sapienza,  opposite  Modon,  to  refresh  his  crew. 
Aware  that  his  enemy  was  in  the  neighbourhood,  he  adopted 
wise  precautions  for  security.  One  division  of  fifteen  gal- 
leys, and  twenty  light  armed  speronati,  under  his  vice- 
admiral  Morosini,  lay  close  to  shore  in  the  innermost  part 
of  the  harbour,  to  victual  and  refit ;  while  the  entran'^e  of 
this  deep  bay  seemed  amply  protected  by  the  remainder  of 
the  fleet,  presenting  a  formidable  line  of  twenty  galleys  and 
six  larger  vessels,  lashed  together  as  before  described  in  the 
battle  of  Cagliari.  It  was  on  the  3d  of  November  that 
Doria  hove  in  sight.  His  fleet  consisted  of  five-and-thirty 
sail ;  but  though  he  was  superior  in  numbers  to  the  squadron 
at  first  opposed  to  him,  the  great  strength  of  its  position 
forbade  attack.  Every  manoeuvre  by  which  he  endeavoured 
to  provoke  the  Venetians  to  quit  their  anchorage  was  un- 
successfully employed  ;  for  Pisani  would  not  fight  at  the 
pleasure  of  his  enemy.  At  a  moment  when  the  enterprise 
was  almost  abandoned  as  fruitless,  Giovanni  Doria,  a 
nephew  of  the  admiral, perceived,  like  Nelson  at  Aboukir,that 
there  was  sufficient  room  for  the  passage  of  a  ship  between 
the  shore  and  the  enemy's  line ;  and  gallantly  leading 
bis  own  divi^iion  of  thirteen  galleys,  he  penetrated  the  bay. 


This  manoeuvre  did  not  escape  Pisani,  who  permitted  its 
execution,  thinking  the  daring  youth,  when  placed  between 
two  divisions  would  be  a  certain  prey.     But  Morosini's 
vessels  were  unprepared  for  an  attack  ;  part  of  their  crew 
was  employed  on  shore,  and  the  rest,  sur}irised  in  idle 
security,  made  but  a  feeble  resistance.     Many  threw  them- 
selves into  the  sea  and  gained  the  land ;  many  more  were 
drowned  in  the  attempt,  and  the  whole  of  his  ships  were 
captured  by  the  Genoese.     The  young  Doria  then  returned 
upon  Pisani,  who  thus  found  himself  placed  in  the  very 
situation  to  which  he  had  calculated  upon  reducijig  his 
assailant.     Pressed  on  both  quarters,  for  he  was  equally 
engaged  in  front,  and  confused  by  two  of  his  own  vessels 
wliich  had  been  fired  and  left  to  drift  upon  his  line,  after 
the  loss  of  four  thousand  men,  he  at  length  surrendered. 
The  stain  of  Cagliari  was  obliterated  by  this  yet  greater 
triumph,  and  Doria  returned  to  Genoa,  bearing  with  him 
thirty  captured  galleys,  little  short  of  six  thousand  prisoners, 
and  among  them  one  who  was  prized  far  above  all,  the 
redoubtable  Pisani  himself.     What  might  have  been   the 
result  if  the  victorious  fleet  had   at  once  appeared  before 
Venice  cannot  now  be  decided  ;    but  never  was  there  a 
moment  in  her  histor}^  at  which  she  appears  to  have  been 
more  defenceless.    Forced  loans  might  recruit  the  treasury, 
but  the  arsenal  was  unable  to  supply  a  single  galley.    Four 
private  citizens  (such  names  far  more  deserve  remembrance 
than  those  which   are  inscribed   in  characters  of  blood), 
Marino  Fradello,  Beato  Vido,  Pietro  Nani,  and  Constantino 
Zucholo,  each  armed  a  vessel  at  his  own  expense.     But 
what  would   this    scanty  force   have   availed   against  the 
triumphant  Doria  ?    Such  was  the  natural  impatience  which 
the  signory  felt  to  renew  negotiations  with  Visconti 
that  a  truce  for  four  months  was  signed  in  little    ^'^' 
more  than  sixty  days  after  the  battle  of  Sapienza ;     ^•*^^' 
before  it  could  be  extended  to  a  peace,  Venice,  more  than 
enough  endangered  by  foreign  arms,  encountered  still  greater 
peril  from  domestic  treason. 

The  doge  who  now  filled  the  throne  had  shown  great 
military  skill  as  commander  at  the  siege  of  Zara  ;  and  in 
some  naval  operations  subsequently  intrusted  to  him,  he 
was  again  distinguished  by  taking  Capo  dTstria.  His 
family  was  one  of  the  most  noble  and  wealthy  which  the 


^^iiSk^^S&S^iaae^X 


•'S#^vrar::-f3>!|BB-^- 


19a 


MARINO   FALIERO. 


republic  boasted.  Two  of  his  ancestors  had  worn  the  ducal 
cTOwn,  and  he  himself  bore  the  honourable  title  of  Count  di 
Valdemarino  in  the  Marches  of  Treviso.  After  a  long  and 
laborious  life,  chiefly  spent  in  the  field,  when  nearly  in  his 
eightieth  year,  he  still  continued  to  serve  his  country  as  a 
diplomatist.  He  had  been  employed  in  this  capacity  at 
Genoa  before  the  battle  of  Caristo,  and  he  was  filling  the 
high  duties  of  ambassador  at  Rome  when  his  election  to 
the  chief  magistracy  was  announced  to  him.  Those  who 
love  to  connect  every  more  than  ordinary  event  with  a  sig- 
nificant prognostic  remarked,  or  remembered,  that  his  pubUc 
entrance,  on  the  5th  of  October,  was  beset  with  evil  omens. 
So  thick  a  mist  (caligo^  as  the  Venetians  term  their  sea- 
fogs)  overspread  the  Lagune,  that  it  was  found  impossible 
to  navigate  the  Bucentaur  from  San.  Clemente,  and  tho 
new  doge,  instead  of  appearing  with  the  pomp  fitted  to  his 
dignity,  approached  his  capital  in  an  humble  gondola.  Even 
the  spot  of  his  disembarkation  was  inauspicious ;  for  in 
consequence  of  the  haze  his  boatmen  missed  the  Riva  della 
Paglioy  to  which  his  course  was  directed,  and  landed  at 
the  Piazzetta,  on  the  fatal  scene  of  public  executions,  be- 
tween the  Two  Columns.  Whether  the  proverb,  "  (hiar- 
dati  daW  intrecolwinioj'^  "  Beware  how  you  get  between 
the  Pillars,"  existed  before  the  time  of  Faliero,  or  arose  in 
consequence  of  him,  it  may  not  be  easy  to  decide  ;  but 
Amelot  de  la  Houssaye  assures  us  that,  from  a  recollection 
of  his  melancholy  fate,  no  sum  of  money  would  tempt  a 
Venetian  nobleman  to  expose  himself  to  the  danger  threat- 
ened by  a  committal  of  his  person  to  this  ill-omened  pas- 
sage. 

The  name  of  Marino  Faliero  is  familiar  to  English  ears ; 
but  the  reader  who  borrows  his  conception  of  the  Doge  of 
Venice  from  the  modem  drama  in  our  language  which  pur- 
ports to  relate  his  story,  will  wander  as  far  from  historic 
truth  as  from  nature  and  probability.  The  Chronicle  of 
Sanuto,  which  the  poet  has  avowed  to  be  liis  basis,  pre- 
sents no  trace  of  that  false,  overwrought,  and  unintelligible 
passion  which,  in  the  tragedy,  is  palmed  upon  us  for  nice 
sensitiveness  to  injured  honour.  We  are  told,  indeed,  that 
the  angry  old  man  had  once  so  far  indulged  his  choleric 
humour  as  to  fell  to  the  ground  a  somewhat  tardy  bishop 
during  the  celebration  of  a  holy  solemnity.     We  hear  of  a 


MARINO    FALIERO. 


193 


fiery  temper,  accustomed  to  command,  dated  by  success 
and  m  which,  on  the  confession  of  Petrarch,  who  was  per- 
sonally well-informed  rcgardhig  it,  valour  predominated  over 
prudence.     These  are  the  unsettled  cJt-ments  upon  which 
the  tempter  best  loves  to  work  ;   but  the  insanity  and  ex- 
travagance with  which  we  must  charge  Faliero,  if  we  sup- 
pose his  attempt  to  overthrow  the  government  of  which  he 
was  chief  arose  solely  from  an  outrageous  desire  of  re- 
venge for  a  petty  insult,  are  entirely  gratuitous  and  belona 
altogether  to  the  poet.     Madness  of  another  kind,  however^ 
that  of  ambition,  is  clearly  ascribable  to  him  ;   and  if  wo 
take  this  as  our  key,  much  of  the  obscurity  attendant  upon 
a  catastrophe  which  has  been  imperfectly  and  inadequately 
developed  will  be  cleared  away  ;  we  shall  obtain  a  character 
httle  indeed  awakening  our  sympathy,  but  yet  not  wholly 
at  variance  with  our  judgment ;  and  although  we  may  be 
astonished  at,  and  recoil  from  the  motives  which  prompted 
his  crime,  they  will  not  be  ahogether  of  a  class  which  sets 
our  comprehension  at  defiance.* 

No  one  can  have  traced  our  preceding  course  of  history 
without  having  remarked  the  gradual  encroachments  of  the 
oligarchy  on  the  ducal  power.     At  almost  every  new  elec- 
tion it  was  crippled  and  curtailed  afresh  of  some  remaining 
portion  of  authority,  till  the  chief  magistrate,  to  whom  at*^ 
tached  the  heaviest  odium  of  tyranny,  was  at  the  same  time 
in  his  own  person    the  victiin  whom  that  tyranny  most 
grievously  oppressed.     During  the  int(,Tregnum  which  oc- 
curred before  the  nomination  of  Faliero,  new  inroads  had 
been  made  upon  the  few  privileges  still  uncircumscribed. 
Additional  shackles  were  imposed  upon  his  communications 
with  foreign  states,  l)y  an  increase  of  the  numbers  of  that 
council,  without  the  presence  of  which  he  was  forbidden  to 
open  despatches  or  to  receive  ambassadors  ;   and  the  three 
presidents  of  the  XL.  were  annexed  to  their  prince  as  spies. 
Besides  this  he  was  subjected  to  fresh  control  in  the  de- 
livery of  his  votes,  in  the  disposal  of  his  property,  and  in 
the  collection  of  his  revenue.     Such  unexpected  mutilation 
of  a  power  already  lowered  far  beneath  that  standard  at 

*  Lord  Byron's  conception  of  Faliero's  character  and  motives  anneara 
to  us  to  be  mistaken  ;  but  wliat  is  to  be  said  to  the  rountlesis  imperti- 
nences and  engrallmeni.s  upon  history  which  M.  de  la  Vigne  has  iniro- 
duced  into  his  French  play  on  the  same  eubject  1 
Vol.  I.— K 


194 


MARIXO    FALIERO. 


which  an  .imbitious  or  even  a  liberal  spirit  would  estimate 
nominal  sovereiijnty  as  worthy  of  acceptance,  must  have 
imbittered  the  very  0])cnin<jr  of  Faliero's  reign.  Nor  were 
the  burdensome  forms  to  which  in  his  administration  he 
was  daily  compelled  to  submit  calculated  to  increase  his 
attachment  to  existing  ordinances.  Fettered  by  absurd 
ceremonies,  a  prisoner  in  his  own  palace,  thwarted,  sus- 
pected, overruled,  vigilantly  watched,  studiously  degraded, 
a  hitrh-toned  and  independent  temper  must  have  felt  such 
bonds  to  be  galling — a  proud  and  irritable  one  must  have 
passionately  longed  to  burst  them.* 

To  Faliero  there  was  yet  another  source  of  discontent. 
In  advanced  life,  he  had  married  a  young  and  lovely  woman. 
No  breath  of  scandal  tarnished  her  reputation  ;t  but  yet  it 
is  likely  that  he  must  have  been  keenly  alive  to  the  possi- 
bility of  ridicule;  that  the  disparity  of  years  must  fre- 
quently have  crossed  his  mind,  as  aflbrding  room  for  sus- 
picion in  the  breasts  of  other  men  ;  and  that,  however 
assured  he  might  be  of  the  safety  of  his  own  honour,  he 
must  have  known  there  were  many  to  whom  such  assuranc(; 
might  be  wanting.  Thus  estimating  his  feelings,  which 
are  not  here  imagined  for  our  purpose,  but  which,  from  the 
constitution  of  human  nature,  could  not  but  exist,  we  shall 
have  little  difficulty  in  conceiving  that  the  unimportant 
circums-tance  which  we  are  about  to  relate,  though  it  can 
by  no  means  be  said  to  have  been  the  cause  of  Faliero's 
rashness,  overthrew,  perhaps,  the  last  remaining  barrier  by 
which  his  impatient  fury  was  restrained. 

The  rest  we  shall  borrow  freely  from  Sanuto.  At  a  ban- 
quet which  it  was  customary  for  the  doge  to  celebrate  in 
his  palace,  after  the  bull-hunt,  on  the  Carnival  Thursday,  a 


*  This  statement  is  plainly  borne  out  by  Marco  Vjllani.  Havendn 
Vanimo  grande  si  conientava  male,  non  ■parendogli  potere  fare  a  sua 
volontd  come  havrebbe  voluto ;  strigneiidogli  la  loro  antica  legge  di  non 
potere  pnssare  la  deliberazione  del  Consiglio  a  lui  diputato  par  lo 
Comune.  E  perd  havea  preso  sdegno  contra  a  genlili  huomini  die  phi 
lo  repugnamm  presontuosameiite.  (V.  13).  Villani  differs  in  many 
particulars  from  Sanuto.  He  omits  all  mention  both  of  Steno  and  Bcl- 
tramo;  and  he  attributes  the  failure  of  the  conspiracy  entirely  to  the 
vacillation  of  the  doge.  P.  .Tustiniani  (lib.  iv.  p.  85)  concurs  in  our  repre- 
bcntation  of  Faliero's  ambition,  and,  indeed,  represents  the  do|;;e  as 
making  the  first  overture  to  Israello,  instead  of  receiving  it  from  him. 

t  Doglioni,  v.  p.  226,  i)erhaps,  appears  to  throw  out  iujputations 
against  her. 


MARINO  FALIERO. 


195 


squabble  had  arisen  from  some  too  pressing  familiarity 
oHered  by  one  of  tbe  young  gallants  of  the  court  to  his 
unstress.  Michele  Steno,  a  gentleman  of  poor  estate,  was 
enamoured  of  a  lady  in  attendance  upon  the  dogaressa ;  and 
presuming  upon  her  favour,  he  was  guilty  of  some  freedom 
which  led  the  doge  to  order  his  exclusion.  This  command 
appears  to  have  been  executed  with  more  than  necessary 
violence  ;  and  the  youth,  fired  by  the  indignity  which  dis- 
graced hun  in  the  eyes  of  his  mistress,  sought  revenge  by 
assailing  Faliero  in  that  point  in  which  he  conceived  hhn 
to  be  most  vulnerable.  He  wrote  on  the  doge's  chair  in 
the  council  chamber  a  few  words  reflecting  upon  the  doga- 
ressa. "  Marino  Faliero,  husband  of  the  lovely  wife  ;  he 
keeps,  but  others  kiss  her."*  The  oifence  was  traced  to 
its  author ;  it  was  pitiful  and  unmanly ;  yet  it  scarcely 
deserved  heavier  punishment  than  that  which  the  XL. 
adjudged  to  it ;  namely,  that  Steno  should  be  imprisoned 
for  two  months,  and  afterward  banished  from  the  state  for 
a  year.  But  to  the  morbid  and  excited  spirit  of  Faliero 
the  petty  affront  of  this  rash  youth  appeared  heightened  to 
a  state-crime ;  and  the  lenient  sentence  with  which  his 
treason  (for  so  he  considered  it)  had  been  visited  was  an 
aggravation  of  every  former  indignity  offered  to  the  chief 
magistrate  by  the  oligarchy  which  affected  to  control  him. 
Steno,  he  said,  should  have  been  ignominiously  hanged,  or 
at  least  condemned  to  perpetual  exile. 

On  the  day  after  the  sentence,  while  the  doge  was  yet 
hot  in  indignation,  an  event  occurred  which  seems  to  have 
confirmed  the  chronicler  whose  steps  we  are  following,  in 
his  belief  in  the  doctrine  of  necessity.  "  Now  it  was  fated," 
he  tells  us,  "  that  my  Lord  Duke  Marino  was  to  have  his 
head  cut  off.  And  as  it  is  necessary,  when  any  effect  is  to 
be  brought  about,  that  the  cause  of  that  effect  must  happen, 
it  therefore  came  to  pass," — that  Bertuccio  Israello,  admiral 
of  the  arsenal, t  a  person  apparently  of  no  less  impetuous 

*  '■'■Marin  Falieri,  dalla  hella  moglie,  altri  la  gode,  ed  rgli  la  montieney 
t  This  officer  was  chief  of  the  artisans  of  the  arsenal,  and  commandfd 
the  Bucentaur,  for  the  safety  of  which,  even  if  an  cccidental  storm 
shouhl  arise,  he  was  responsible  v^ith  his  lift;.  lie  mounted  guard  at 
tlie  dntial  palace  during  ar  interregnum,  and  bore  the  red  standard  before 
llie  new  do;^e  <m  his  inaugi'ration;  for  which  service  his  perquiRites 
v,-ere  the  ducal  mantle,  and  liie  two  silver  basins  from  whirli  the  d«»ge 
scatterod  the  regulated  pittance  which  he  was  permitted  to  throw  atnong 
tJie  people. — A/ncIot  dr  la  Hmissai/e,'!^. 


196 


MARINO  FALIERO. 


MARINO  FALIERO. 


197 


■I 

41 


passions  than  the  (logo  himself,  and  who  is  described  as 
possessed  also  of  egregious  cunning,  approaclied  him  to  seek 
reparation  for  an  outrage.     A  noble  had  dishonoured  him 
by  a  blow ;  and  it  was  vain  to  ask  redress  for  this  alTront 
from  any  but  the  highest  personage  in  the  state.     Faliero, 
brooding  over  his  own  imagined  wrongs,  disclaimed  that 
title,  and  gladly  seized  occasion  to  descant  on  his  personal 
insignificance.     "What  wouldst  thou  have  me  to  do  for 
thee  ]"  was  his  answer :  "  Think  upon  the  shameful  gibe 
which  hath  been  written  concerning  me,  and  think  on^tho 
manner  in  which  they  have  punished  that  ribald,  Michele 
Steno,  who  wrote  it ;  and  see  how  the  Council  of  XL. 
respect  our  person !"     Upon  this,  the    admiral   returned, 
"  My  lord  duke,  if  you  would  wish  to  make  yourself  a  prince, 
and  cut  all  those  cuckoldy  gentlemen  to  pieces,  I  have  the 
heart,  if  you  do  but  help  me,  to  make  you  prince  of  all  the 
state  ;  and  then  you  may  punish  them  all."     Hearing  this, 
the  duke  said,  «  How  can  such  a  matter  be  brought  about?" 
and  so  they  discoursed  thereon. 

Such  is   Sanuto's  brief  narrative  of  the  origin  of  this 
conspiracy ;  and  we  have  notliing  more  certain  to  offer.     It 
is  not  easy  to  say  whence  he  obtained  his  intelligence.     If 
such  a  conversation  as  that  which  he  relates^really  did 
occur,  it  must  have  taken  place  without  the  presence  of 
witnesses,  and  therefore  could  be  disclosed  only  by  one  of 
the  parties.     It  is  far  more  likely  that  the  chronicler  is 
relating  that  which  he  supposed^  than  that  which  he  tieio ; 
and  as  it  must  bo  admitted  that  the  interview  with  the 
admiral  of  the  arsenal  occurred,  and  that,  immediately  after 
It,  the  doge  was  found  linked   with  the   daring  band  of 
which  that  officer  was  chief,  there  is  no  violation  of  proba- 
bility in  granting  that  some  such  conversation  took  place  • 
and  that  the  train  was  ignited  by  this  collision  of  two 
angry  spirits.     Whether  the  plot  was  in  any  doaree  oro-an- 
ized  beforehand,  or  arose  at  the  moment,  it  is°manifestly 
impossible  for  us  to  decide,  without  information  which  can- 
not now  be  obtained. 

Bertucci  Faliero,  a  nephew  of  the  doge,  and  Filippo 
Calendaro,  a  seaman  of  great  repute,  were  summoned  to 
conference  immediately.  It  was  agreed  to  communicate 
the  design  to  six  other  associates  ;  and  durincr  many  nirrhts 
successively  these  plebeian  assassins  airarmed  with  "the 
doge,  under  the  roof  of  his  own  palace,  the"' massacre  of 


'i 


I 


I 


the  entire  aristocracy,  and  the  dissolution  of  the  existing 
<rovcrnment.  "  It  was  concerted  that  sixteen  or  seventeen 
headers  should  be  stationed  in  various  parts  of  the  city,  each 
being  at  the  head  of  forty  men,  armed  and  prepared ;  but 
the  followers  were  not  to  know  their  destination.  On  the 
ai)poiuted  day,  they  were  to  make  affrays  among  themselves 
here  and  there,  in  order  that  the  duke  might  have  a  pretence 
for  tolling  the  bells  of  San  Marco,  which  are  never  rung 
])ut  by  the  order  of  the  duke.*  And  at  the  sound  of  the 
bells  these  sixteen  or  seventeen,  with  their  followers,  were 
to  come  to  San  Marco,  through  the  streets  which  open 
upon  the  piazza ;  and  when  the  nobles  and  leading  citizens 
should  come  to  the  piazza  to  know  the  cause  of  the  riot, 
then  the  consi)irators  were  to  cut  them  in  pieces  ;  and  this 
work  being  finished,  my  Lord  Marino  Faliero,  the  duke,  was 
to  be  proclaimed  Lord  of  Venice.t  Things  having  been 
thus  settled,  they  agreed  to  fulfil  their  attempt  on  Wednes- 
day, the  15th  day  of  April,  in  the  year  1355.  So  covertly 
did  they  plot,  that  no  one  ever  dreamed  of  their  machinations." 

As  a  previous  step,  in  order  to  arouse  popular  feeling 
against  the  great  council,  it  was  determined  to  practise  a 
singular  stratagem.  Parties  of  the  conspirators  paraded 
ditlerent  quarters  of  the  capital  in  the  dead  of  night,  and  hav- 
ing stopped  at  the  windows  of  some  citizens  of  the  middle 
and  lower  classes,  and  there  insulted  the  women  of  the 
family  by  scandalous  and  unseemly  propositions,  they 
retired  with  rude  bursts  of  laughter,  calling  each  other 
loudly  by  the  names  of  the  principal  noblemen. t 

Perhaps  the  rapidity  with  which  their  design  was  framed 
tended  much  to  its  concealment.  Scarcely  a  little  month 
had  elapsed  since  its  first  projection,  and  now  the  following 
day  was  to  destroy  the  constitution  of  Venice,  to  deluge 
her  streets  with  patrician  blood,  and  to  pluck  up  all  her  an- 
cient slocks  from  their  very  roots,  without  a  suspicion  of  the 
approaching  calamity  having  glanced  across  the  intended 
victims.  Either  the  Council  of  Ten  could  not  yet  have 
attained  its  subsequent  fearful  and  extraordinary  ubiquity,  or 
the  conspirators  must  have  exhibited  a  prudence  and  self-con- 

*  One  of  the  pretexts  for  ringing  tins  alarm  was  to  have  been  an 
announcement  of  the  appearance  of  a  Genoese  fleet  off  the  Lngune. 

t  Dtnmin  Faferius  non  prtnrcps  aniplius  sed  Doiuimis  salutaretur. 
V.  Justiniani,  nt  snp.  p  86. 

t  P.  Justiniani,  ut  sup. 

112 


l 


r.  ■'««MV^^.,^■^^^5J,^,.ja^^-,a,^M«./ 


198 


MARINO  FALIERO. 


trol  rarely,  if  ever,  paralleled  by  nn  equally  large  body  of  men 
englgedl;  a  similar  attempt.     To  their  mmor  agentMheir 
ultimate  design  had  not  been  revealed ;  and  even  m  the 
end  he  discovery  arose  not  from  treachery,  nor  frommcau- 
tSl  buttom  "a  compunctious  visiting"  of  one  framed  of 
stuff  less  stern  than  his  associates,  and  who  shrank  from 
the  murder  of  a  benefactor.     The  pnrt  played  by  Tresham 
in  that  yet  more  bloody  conspiracy  which  the  papists,  in 
after-days,  framed  against  the  three  estates  of  England  was 
but  a  repetition  of  that  now  enacted  in  Venice  by  Bcltramo 
of  Berffamo.*     Beltramo  had  been  brought  up  ma  nob  e 
Liry,C  which  he  was  closely  attached,  that  of  ^icolo 
Lioni,  of  San  Stefano  ;  and  anxious  to  preserve  his  patron  s 
life,  he  went  to  him  on  the  evening  before  the  rismg,  and 
entreated  him  to  remain  at  home  on  the  morrow.     The  sm- 
ffular  nature  of  the  request  excited  surprise,  which  was  in- 
Hreased  to  suspicion  by  the  ambiguous  answers  returned  to 
further  inquiries  which  it  suggested.     By  degrees,  every 
particular  of  the  treason  was  revealed,  and  Lioni  heard  ot 
file  impending  danger  with  terror,  and  of  the  hands  by  which 
t  was  threatened  with  astonishment  and  slow  y-accorded 
jbelief.     Not  a  moment  was  to  be  lost ;  he  secured  Beltramo, 
flierefore,  and  having  communicated  with  a  few  friends, 
hey  resolved  upon  assembling  the  heads  of  the  different 
magistracies,  and  immediately  seizing  such  rmgleaders  as 
had  been  denounced.     These  were  taken  at  their  own  houses 
without  resistance.     Precautions  were  adopted  against  any 
tumultuous  gathering  of  the  mechanics  of  the  arsenal,  and 
strTct  orders  iere  issued  to  the  keeper  of  the  campamlc  not 
on  any  account  to  toll  the  bells.  ^  r    *. 

In  the  course  to  be  pursued  with  the  lesser  malefactors 
no  difficulty  was  likely  to  arise  :  the  rack  and  thegibbe 
were  their  leaal  portion.  But  for  the  doge,  the  law  afforded 
no  precedent'';  and  upon  a  crime  which  it  had  not  entered 
into  the  mind  of  man  to  conceive  (as  with  that  na  ion  which, 
havincT  never  contemplated  parricide,  had  neglected  to  pro- 
vide any  punishment  for  it),  no  tribunal  known  to  the  con- 
stitution was  competent  to  pass  judgment.     The  Council  ot 

♦  Rnrh  nnnears  to  be  the  most  received  belief.    Sismondi  has  preferred 
another  wffifrepreLnt^^  to  have  been  one  of  those  persons 

?"om  whom  the  particulars  of  the  conspiracy  had  been  concealed  but  who 
had  bee.,  persuaded  to  attend  the  musters :  his  suspicions  were  excited, 
and  these  he  8tated  to  Lioni. 


I 


'T-H'TK    'rA,:.,rrr     ;T&I1H;S. 


EXECUTION  OF  MARINO  FALIERO. 


199 


Ten  (lemandeJ  the  assistance  of  a  giunta  of  twenty  nobleg, 
who  were  to  give  advice,  but  not  to  ballot ;  and  this  body 
liaving  been  constituted,  "  they  sent  for  my  Lord  Marino 
J'aliero,  the  duke,  and  my  lord  was  then  consorting  in  the 
palace  with  people  of  great  estate,  gentlemen  and  other  good 
men,  none  of  whom  knew  yet  how  the  fact  stood." 

The  ringleaders  were  immediately  hanged  between  the 
Red   Columns   on   the   Fiazzcttay   some    singly,  some  in 
couples  ;  and  the  two  chiefs  of  them,  Bertuccio  Israello  and 
Calendar©,  with  a  cruel  precaution  not  uncommon  in  Venice, 
were  previously  gagged.     Nor  was  the  process  of  the  high- 
est delinquent  long  protracted.     He  appears  neither  to  have 
denied  nor  to  have  extenuated  his  guilt,  and  "  on  Friday,  the 
1 6th  day  of  April,  judgment  was  given  in  the  Council  of  Ten, 
that  my  Lord  Marino  Faliero,  the  duke,  should  have  his  liead 
cut  ofl",  and  that  the  execution  should  be  done  on  the  landing- 
place  of  the  stone   staircase,  the  Giants'  Stairs,  where  the 
doges  take  their  oath  when  they  first  enter  the  palace.     On 
the  following  day,  the  doors  of  the  palace  being  shut,  the 
duke  had  his  head  cut  off,  about  the  hour  of  noon  ;  and  the 
cap  of  estate  was  taken  from  the  duke's  head,  before  he 
came  down  the  staircase.     When  the  execution  was  over, 
it  is  said  that  one  of  the  chiefs  of  the  Council  of  Ten  went 
to  the  columns  of  the  palace  against  the  piazza,  and  dis- 
playing the  bloody  sword,  exclaimed,  *  Justice  has  fallen  on 
the  traitor !'  and  the  gates  being  then  opened,  the  populace 
eagerly  rushed  in  to  see  the  doge  who  had  been  executed." 
The  body  of  Faliero  was  conveyed  by  torchlight  in  a  gon- 
dola, and  unattended  by  the  customary  ceremonies,  to  the 
church  of  San  Giovanni  and  San  Paolo  ;  in  the  outer  wall 
of  which  a  stone  coffin  is  still  imbedded,  with  an  illegible 
inscription,  which  once  presented  the  words.  Hie  jacct  Mari' 
nus  Feletro  Dux.     His  lands  and  goods  were  confiscated  to 
the  state,  with  the  exception  of  two  thousand  ducats,  of 
which  he  was  permitted  to  dispose  ;  and  yet  further  to  trans- 
mit to  posterity  the  memory  of  his  enonnous  crime,  his  por- 
trait was  not  admitted  to  range  with  those  of  his  brother 
doges  in  the  hall  of  the  great  council.     In  the  frame  which  it 
ought  to  occupy  is  suspended  a  black  veil,  inscribed  with  the 
words,  Hic  est  locus  Marini  Feletro  decapitati  pro  criminibus. 
The  fate  of  Bcltramo  deserves  a  few  words.     He  was 
amply  rewarded  for  his  opportune  discovery,  by  a  pension 
of  a  thousand  ducats  in  perpetuity,  the  grant  of  a  private 


/- 


200 


FATE  OF  BELTRAMO. 


resitlencc  which  had  helonffod  to  Faliero,  and  inscription  m 
the  golden  book.  Dissatislied,  however,  with  this  lavish 
payment  for  a  very  ambiguous  virtue,  he  lost  no  occasion 
of  taxing  the  nobles  with  neglect  of  his  services,  and  of 
uttcringloud  calumnies  against  them,  both  secretly  and  iii 
public."  The  government,  wearied  by  his  importunities  and 
ingratitude,  at  length  deprived  him  of  his  appointments,  and 
sentenced  him  to  ten  years'  exile  at  Ragusa  ;  but  his  rest- 
less and  turbulent  spirit  soon  prompted  him  to  seek  a  spot 
less  under  the  control  of  the  signory,  in  which  he  might 
vent  his  railings  afresh,  and  with  impunity.  It  is  probable 
that  the  long  arm  of  the  Council  of  X.  arrested  his  design, 
for  we  are  significantly  informed  that  he  perished  on  his  way 
to  Pannonia. 


Ancient  Doge  and  Dogareasa. 
From  Titian.  - 


WAR  WITH  HUNGARY. 


201 


CIIArXER  VII. 

FROM    A.  D.   1355    TO    A.  D.  1373. 

War  with  T-ouis  of  TIiinRary— Loss  of  Dalmatia— Bequest  of  Petrarch's 
Library— Insurrection  in  ( "andia— Petrarch's  Account  of  the  Festivities 
oil  its  Suppression— Last  Stru^rgle  of  the  Caiidiotes— Intrigues  of  Fran- 
cesco Vecchio  Ja  (.Carrara- Invasion  of  Padua— Submission  of  da 
Carrara— Revolution  at  Constantinople— Youth  of  Carlo  Zeiio— Ac- 
quisitioa  of  Tenedos— Aflray  in  Cyprus— Powerful  League  against 
Venice. 


A.  D. 

DOGES. 

1355. 

I.VIII. 

Giovanni  Gradenigo. 

1356. 

LIX. 

Giovanni  Delpino. 

1361. 

LX. 

Lorenzo  Celsi. 

1365. 

LXI. 

Marco  Cornaro. 

1367. 

LXlI. 

Andrea  Contarini. 

Giovanni  Gradenigo    succeeded  to  the   blood-stained 
throne :  both  his  reign  and  that  of  Giovanni  Delpino      ^    ^^ 
were  passed  in  a  calamitous  war  with  Louis  of  j355_g^ 
JIuno-ary,  who  still  regarded  Zara  with  a  longing 
eye.  ^  Seven  revolts  of  that  colony  had  sufliciently  evinced 
her*  disaffection  from  Venice  ;  and  to  her  Hungarian  neigh- 
bours, on  the  other  hand,  she  was  attached  by  the  strong 
ties  of  similar  language,  manners,  and  origin.     Lotiis  allied 
himself  with  the  Duke  of  Austria,  with  the  Patriarch  of 
Aquileia,  and  with  one  whom  gratitude  for  the  restoration 
of  his  family  to  power  ought  to  have  retained  in  the  friend- 
ship of  the   republic,    Francesco   da    Carrara  (Francesco 
Vecchio,  as  he  is  termed,  in  order  to  distinguish  him  from 
his  ill-fated  son),  a  descendant  of  Marsilio,  and  the  present 
Lord  of  Padua.     Thus  supported,  he  pressed  a  vigorous 
and  successful  war  both  in  the  Trevisano  and  in  Dalmatia ; 
and  in  the  end  he  compelled  Venice  to  the  renouncement 
of  all  pretension  to  sovereignty  on  the  eastern  coast  of  the 
Adriatic. 

To  the  reign  of  Delpino  are  attributed  the  sumptuary 


202 


PETRARCH  S  LIBRARY. 


PETRARCH  S  LIBRARY. 


203 


laws  which  regulated  the  dress,  table,  and  personal  expenses 
of  each  rank  of  citizens,  and  the  institution  of  the 
^'^'  three  magistrates  by  whom  tliey  are  superintended. 
"^  '  (3ne  of  the  absurd  restrictions  wliich  they  in- 
troduced regarded  uniformity  of  dress  among  all  classes. 
The  cloak  of  the  richest  noble,  as  well  as  that  of  the  meanest 
artisan,  if  he  could  procure  one,  was  to  be  made  of  Paduan 
cloth,  and  a  heavy  penalty  was  imposed  upon  the  use  of 
Pmglish,  Spanish,  or  Dutch  manufacture.  The  younger 
nobility  evaded  this  law  by  the  magnificence  of  their  under 
vestments.  The  cloak  was  made  so  as  to  exhibit  these  to 
advantage,  by  falling  open,  and  on  entering  their  gondolas 
or  their  own  houses,  it  was  entirely  thrown  aside.  Then 
they  appeared  dressed  in  rich  flowered  silks,  edged  with  the 
costliest  lace,  and  often  with  a  doublet  of  gold  or  silver  bro- 
cade. About  the  time  of  Delpino  also,  that  decree  is  sup- 
posed to  have  been  passed  which  forbids  any  Venetian  noble 
from  embarking  in  commercial  pursuits  ;  a  law  not  always 
rigidly  observed  at  later  periods.  Its  direct  tendency  was 
to  prevent  the  accumulation  of  wealth  in  new  hands,  and 
thus  to  preserve  the  ascendency  of  those  families  by  whom 
power  had  already  been  attained. 

The  commencement  of  the  reign  of  Lorenzo  Celsi, 
who  succeeded,  was  distinguished  by  a  magnificent 
vin  l^^quest  from  Petrarch,  of  which  the  Venetians  have 
proved  themselves  but  little  worthy.  The  poet  ap- 
pears to  have  contemplated  his  visits  to  the  Lagune  with  no 
ordinary  satisfaction,  and  in  order  more  substantially  to  tes- 
tify his  grateful  sense  of  the  frequent  hospitality  of  the 
republic,  he  offered  his  library  as  a  legacy.  In  1362,  while 
the  plague  was  raging  at  Padua,  he  had  fixed  his  abode  at 
Venice,  which  was  free  from  infection ;  his  books  accom- 
panied him,  and  for  their  conveyance  he  was  obliged  to  retain 
a  numerous  and  expensive  stud  of  baggage-horses.  On 
the  4th  of  September  in  that  year,  he  wrote  to  the  senate, 
"  I  wish,  with  the  good-will  of  our  Saviour  and  of  the  Evan- 
gelist himself,  to  make  St.  Mark  heir  of  my  library."  His 
chief  stipulations  were,  that  the  books  should  neither  be 
sold  nor  dispersed,  and  that  a  building  should  be  provided  in 
which  they  might  be  secure  against  fire  and  the  weather. 
The  great  council  gladly  accepted  this  liberal  donation,  and 
addressed  its  thanks  in  terms  of  courtesy  (perhaps  not  exag- 


gerated, if  we  remember  the  times  in  which  they  were  writ- 
ten) "to  a  scholar  unrivalled  hi  pottry,  in  moral  philosophy, 
and  in  theology."  A  palace  which  belonged  to  the  fuiniiy 
of  Molina,  and  in  later  years  w  as  converted  into  a  monaK- 
tery  for  the  nuns  of  St.  Sepulchre,  was  assigned  as  a  resi- 
dence for  the  poet,  and  as  a  depository  for  liis  books. 
Macedo,  a  professor  of  Padua,  who  has  described  the  won- 
ders of  Venice  most  infiatedly,  in  what  he  terms  a  Scries  uf 
fie  hires  designed  hy  a  -poetical  and  historical  pencil^  speaks 
of  Petrarch  on  this  occasion  as  crossing  the  Lagnnc  like 
another  Arion ;  and  by  the  melody  of  his  song  renewing 
Amj)hion's  miracle,  and  rousing  the  stones  to  create  a  library. 
This  collection,  which  formed  the  nucleus  of  the  now  ines- 
timable library  of  St.  Mark,  though  by  no  means  extensive, 
still  contained  many  treasures  of  no  small  price.  Among 
them  are  enumerated  a  MS.  of  Homer,  given  to  Petrarch 
by  Nicolaus  Sigeros,  ambassador  of  the  Greek  emperor  ;  a 
beautiful  copy  of  Sophocles  ;  the  entire  Iliad  and  great  part 
of  the  Odyssey  translated  by  Leontio  Pilato,  and  copied  in 
the  handwriting  of  Boccaccio,  whom  the  translator  had  in- 
structed in  Greek ;  an  imperfect  Quinctilian  ;  and  most  of 
the  works  of  Cicero  transcribed  by  Petrarch  liimself,  who 
professed  most  unbounded  admiration  for  the  great  Roman 
philosopher.*  The  Venetians,  to  their  shame,  grievously 
neglected  the  poet's  gift.  When  Tomasini  requested  per- 
mission to  uispect  the  books,  in  the  early  part  of  the  seven- 
teenth century,  he  was  led  to  the  roof  of  St.  Mark's,  where 
he  found  them,  to  use  his  own  words,  "partly  reduced  to 
dust,  partly  petrified" — dicln,  mirum!  iiisaxa  mutaios  ;\  and 
he  adds  a  catalogue  of  such  as  were  afterward  rescued  from 
destruction.  About  a  century  alter  the  establishment  of 
this  first  public  library-  in  Venice,  it  was  largely  increased  by 
the  munificence  of  Cardinal  Bessarion,  who,  as  patriarch 
of  Constanti:io])le,  possessed  frequent  op[)ortunities  of 
securing  MSS.  of  great  rarity  ;  and  afterward  by  that  of 
Professor  Melchior  Wieland,  a  native  of  Marienburg,  who, 
out  of  gratitude  for  benefits  conferred  by  the  reiaiblic,  be- 
queathed it  his  collection  in  l.*}89.  It  now  contains  about 
sixty  thousand  volumes,  which,  in  1812,  were  transferred 
from  the  Procuratic  nuocc  to  the  splendid  saloon  in  the  ducal 

*  Gingueiit,  Hist.  Liter,  d'ltalie,  ch.  Vii.  p.  2. 
t  Pelrarcfia  Rtdivivus,  \}.  72. 


204 


THE  DOGE  CELSl  AND  HIS  FATHER. 


palace,  no  longer  required  for  the  assemblies  of  the  grand 
council. 

The  private  tastes  of  the  doge  Celsi  are  noticed  by  an 
anonymous  manuscript  chronicle  ;*  and  one  of  them  was 
uncommon  for  a  Venetian.     He  was  fond  of  inspecting  the 
processes  of  the  mint,  and  he  kept  a  large  stud  of  horses  in 
the  capital.     His  accession  occasioned  a  singular  domestic 
jealousy.     His  father,  accustomed  to  the  exercise  of  pater- 
nal authority,  felt  reluctant  to  acknowledge  the  elevation 
which  his  son  had  attained  above  himself;  and  the  churlish 
old  man,  unable  to  brook  a  superiority  which  he  considered 
to  be  a  violation  of  the  course  of  nature,  in  order  to  avoid 
uncovering  himself  in  the  presence  of  the  doge,  adopted 
a  habit  of  going  always  bareheaded.     Lorenzo,  actuated  hy 
a  better  feeling,  ingeniously  devised  a  pretext  which  might 
at  once  relieve  his  father's  ridiculous  scruple,  and  obtain  for 
himself  the  honour  due  to  his  station.     He  embroidered  a 
cross  upon  the  ducal  cap,  and  the  superstitious  dotard  no 
longer  refused  the  customary  mark  of  respect.     "  It  is  not," 
he  said,  "  to  you,  my  son,  that  I  bow,  but  to  the  cross. 
Having  given  you  life,  it  is  not  possible  that  I  should  be 
your  inferior."     The  conduct  of  the  doge  was  wise  and 
affectionate  ;  but  how  far  more  touching  was  the  unextorted 
filial  piety  which  Roper  has  so  simply  and  so  beautifully 
recorded  of   Sir  Thomas  More,  when  liUing   the  exalted 
I)ost  of  lord  chancellor.     "  Whensoever  he  pTissed  through 
Westminster  Hall  to  his  place  in  the  Chancery,   by  the 
court  of  the  King's  Bench,  if  his  father  (one  of  the  judges 
thereof)  had  been  seated  or  he  came,  he  would  go  into  the 
same  court,  and   there,  reverently  kneeling  down  in  the 
sight  of  them  all,  duly  ask  his  father's  l)lessing ;  and  if  it 
fortuned  that  his  father  and  he,  at  pleadings  in  Lincoln's- 
Inn,  met  together  (as  they  somelhnes  did),  notwithstandinrr 
his  high  office,  he  would  offer  in  argument  the  pre-eminence 
to  his  fiither,  though  he  for  his  office  sake,  would  refuse  to 
take  it." 

The  cession  of  Dalmatia  had  naturally  impressed  the 
other  colonies  of  Venice  with  a  conviction  of  her  feebleiiess ; 
and  the  Candiotes,  always  chafuig  under  her  yoke,  once 
again  endeavoured  to  throw  it  offf.     This  insurrection  was 

*  Bib.  di  San  Marco ^  xxi. 


I 


y 


REVOLT  IN  CANDIA. 


205 


not  planned  and  conducted,  as  in  former  instances,  by  the 
discontented  natives :  it  was  now  a  revolt  of  the  whole 
Venetian  population  of  the  island.     Of  the  original  settlers 
many  were  branches  of  the  most  illustrious  families  of  the 
mother-country,  who  painfully  felt  their  hopeless  exclusion 
Irom  all  suire  in  the  government ;  and  their  irritation  was 
heightened  by  an  idle  and  unseasonable  sarcasm.     One  of 
their  demands  had  been,  that  they  might  be  pennittcd  to 
depute  twenty  sages  to  the  great  council,  as  their  repre- 
sentatives and  guardians  of  their  interests;  and  this  not 
unreasonable  proposition  had  been  met  by  the  governor  to 
whom  It  was  submitted,  by  the  bitter  inquiry,  "Are  there 
any  sages  among  you  ?"     A  tax  levied  for  the  reparation  of 
their  port  afforded  a  pretext  for  resistance,  and  the  islanders 
rose  almost  to  a  man ;  they  seized  the  arsenals  and  public 
stores,  secured  the  person  of  the  governor,  threw  open  tho 
jails,  and  armed  the  prisoners ;  and  in  order  more  effectually 
to  sever  all  ties  which  might  bind  them  to  Venice,  with  a 
headlong  mry  they  abandoned  their  national  profession  of 
faith,  and  embraced  the  doctrine  of  the  Greek   church. 
&t.  Mark  at  the  same  time  was  degraded  from  his  tutelary 
pre-eminence,  and   replaced   by  a  far  less   distinguished 
patron,  !!>t.  litus. 

Whether  from  weakness  or  from  a  wish  to  prevent 
effusion  of  blood,  the  republic  adopted  a  course  little  likely 
to  avail  with  a  refractory  colony  already  in  arms.  She 
sought  to  negotiate  ;  but  the  envoys  were  not  permitted  to 
land,  and  they  were  sent  back  with  an  insulting  message  to 
the  signory.  A  second  embassy  was  allowed  to  disembark; 
bu  It  was  only  that  it  might  witness  the  fierce  enthusiasm 
of  the  populace  and  their  detestation  of  the  Venetian  name. 

<•  V  ?  lu^^'  "'n''^  "^^^^^  ^"^  ™*'^"y  precautions,  a  fleet 
of  thirty-three  galleys  was  equipped ;  and  six  thousand 
men,  embarked  in  them,  were  hitrusted  to  the  command  of 
Luchmo  dal  Verme,  a  Veronese.  The  Genoese  had  refused 
their  assistance  to  the  insurgents:  and  after  all  the  bold 
demonstratrons  of  resistance  which  the  Candiotes  had  ex- 
hibited, this  inconsiderable  armament  was  sufficient  to  re- 
duce the  island  of  one  hundred  cities  in  the  short  term 
of  three  days.  The  scaffbld  received  its  customary  '"  ^' 
tribute  after  an  unsuccessful  revoU;  and  the  triumph  ^^^^• 
was  celd,rated  at  Venice  with  unusual  festivity,  of  which 

*  OL.  1,— o 


-•sKfgf^f;' 


206 


FESTIVITIES  ON 


THE  REDUCTION  OF  CANDIA. 


207 


Petrarch  in  one  of  his  letters  has  afforded  the  following 
very  minute  and  picturesque  narrative. 

It  was  on  the  4th  of  June  that  the  poet,  in  company  with 
the  Archbishop  of  Patrae  was  enjoying  a  delicious  prospect 
of  the  sea  from  his  windows,  and  cheating  a  summer  eve- 
ning with  familiar  talk,  when  the  conversation  was  inter- 
rupted by  the  appearance  of  a  galley,  in  the  offing,  fancifully 
dressed  out  with  green  boughs.     This  unusual  decoration, 
the  rapid  motion  of   the   oars,  the  joyful  shouts  of  the 
mariners,  the  garlands  which  they  had  twined  round  their 
caps,   the  streamers  which  floated  from  their  masts,   all 
betokened  the   arrival  of  some  pleasing  intelligence.     A 
signal  was  given  from  the  beacon-tower  of  the  port,  and  the 
whole  population  of  the  city  flocked  to  the  water's  edge, 
breathless  with  curiosity,  to  ascertain  the  news.     As  the 
bark  came  nearer  shore,  some  flags  of  the  enemy  were  seen 
hanging  from  her  stern ;  and  all  doubt  was  then  removed  that 
she  was  the  messenger  of  victory.    What,  however,  was 
the  general  surprise  and  joy  when  it  was   announced  that 
the  rebels  were  not  only  worsted  but  conquered,  that  Candia 
was  subdued,  and  that  the  war  was  at  an  end  !     The  dog© 
with  his  court  and  prelates  and  the  whole  attendant  crowd 
of  citizens  immediately  repaired  to  St.  Mark's,  and  offered 
up  a  solemn  service  of  thanksgiving.     The  festivals  which 
succeeded  lasted  for  many  days ;  and  they  were  closed  by 
a  tournament    and  a  magnificent   equestrian   parade,    for 
which  Petrarch  is  unable  to  find  an  adequate  Latin  name. 
In  this  last  spectacle  a  troop  of  four-and-twenty  noble 
Venetian  youths,  headed  by  a  Ferrarese,  splendidly  arrayed, 
and  mounted   on   horses  gorgeously  caparisoned,  started 
singly,  but  in  quick  succession,  from  a  barrier  in  the  Piazza 
di  San  Marco,  and,  coursing  round  to  a  goal,  uninterrupt- 
edly renewed  the  same  circle,  brandishing  lances  from  which 
silken  ribands  fluttered  to  the  wind.     The  doge  with  his 
brilliant  train  sat  in  the  marble  gallery  over  St.  Mark's 
porch,  by  the  well-known  horses,  whence  the  evening  sun 
was  shaded  by  richly  embroidered  canopies.     On  his  right 
hand  sat  Petrarch  hunself,  whose  love  of  pleasure  was  satis- 
fied by  two  days'  attendance  on  the  protracted  festivity. 
The  splendour  of  the  scene  was  heightened  by  the  presence 
of  several  English  barons,  some  of  them  of  the  royal  blood, 
who  at  that  time  were  in  Venice,  so  far  as  we  can  under- 


J 


i 


8land  Petrarch's  obscure  statement,  engaged  in  some  mari- 
time negotiation  ;*  though  one  of  the  chroniclers  assures 
us  that  they  had  no  other  object  than  a  laudable  desire  of 
seeing  the  world,  f  In  the  court  below  not  a  grain  of  sand 
could  have  fallen  to  the  pavement,  so  dense  was  the  throng. 
A  wooden  scaffolding,  raised  for  the  occasion  on  the  right 
of  the  piazza,  contained  a  bright  store  of  beauty  ;  the  forty 
noblest  dames  of  Venice  glittering  with  costly  jewels.  In 
the  horse-course  honour  was  the  sole  prize ;  but  for  the 
tournament,  in  which  danger  was  to  be  encountered,  more 
substantial  rewards  were  proposed.  For  the  most  success- 
ful champion  a  crown  of  solid  gold,  chased  with  precious 
stones  ;  for  the  second,  a  silver  belt  of  choice  workmanship. 
The  King  of  Cyprus,  who  happened  to  be  returning  to  his 
dominions  from  France,  condescended  to  break  a  lance  with 
the  son  of  the  victorious  general,  Luchino  dal  Verme  ;  but 
the  chief  honour  of  the  three  days'  jousts  was  borne  away, 
as  was  to  be  wished,  by  a  native  Venetian,  though  the 
flower  of  all  the  neighbouring  provinces  had  been  invited  to 
partake  in  these  feats  of  anns.J 

The  following  year  beheld  the  last  firuitless  struggle  of 
the  Candiotes    for  their  liberty;    and    although   it 
occurred  in  a  different  reign,  we  shall  briefly  notice    logc 
it  here,  in  order  that  we  may  preserve  the  thread  of 
our  narrative  unbroken.     The  insurgents,  recovered  from 
their  late  disasters,  were  headed  by  three  brothers  of  the 
family  of  Calense  ;  and  they  protracted  during  more  than 
twelve  months  a  desultory,  tedious,  and  destructive  war  of 
posts,  by  distributing  their  followers  in  straggling  parties 
throughout  the  island,  instead  of  taking  the  field  in  a  smgle 
body.     They  were  at  length  hunted  down  ;  and  so 
bloody  was  the  revenge  of  the  Venetians,  that  neither    .  ^^^ 
sex  nor  age  was    spared,  if  contaminated  by  the 
unhappy  name  of  Calenge.     "  Candia,"  says  one  of  the 
provvcditoriy  in  his  report  to  the  government  which  em- 
ployed him,  "  is  yours  for  ever ;  another  rebellion  is  impos- 

*  Petrarch's  words  are,  Britones  qui  sese  interim  Idborari  (labori  ?) 
aquoreo  vegetnbant. 

t  Morosini,  xiii.  p.  288. 

i  Seniiia,  iv.  2.  Mr.  Rogers,  followmg  almost  the  very  letter  of  Pe- 
trarch's narrative,  has  transferred  it  with  no  common  happiness  into 
very  elegant  verse.  (Italy,  St.  Mark's  Place.)  It  is  needless  to  cite  the 
liassago  at  length  from  a  poem  which  is  ia  everybody's  memory. 


208 


NEW  RESTRAINTS  ON  THE  DOGE. 


sible  ;  terrible  examples  have  swept  away  the  ringleaders } 
the  fortresses  which  gave  them  asylums,  the  cities  of 
Lasitha  and  AnapoUs,  every  building  which  might  aflbrd  a 
stronghold  has  been  razed  to  the  ground.  The  inhabitants 
have  been  transported  to  other  districts  ;  the  surrounding 
neighbourhood  has  been  converted  into  a  desert ;  and, 
henceforward,  no  one,  on  pain  of  death,  will  be  permitted  to 
cultivate,  or  even  to  approach  it." 

When  Andrea  Contarini  was  named  to  the  dogeship, 

and  was  about  to  commence  a  reign  more  memorable 
1367    ^^^^  ^^y  other  in  the  annals  of  Venice,  it  was  not 

without  manifest  reluctance  that  he  submitted  to  tho 
choice  of  the  electors.  So  sincerely,  indeed,  did  he  wish  to 
escape  the  fetters  of  nominal  sovereignty,  that  he  withdrew 
to  Padua ;  nor  did  he  return  for  investiture,  till  the  senate 
threatened  confiscation  and  other  punishments  of  rebellion, 
if  he  should  continue  disobedient  to  their  wishes.  The 
correttori  had  already  passed  a  law  during  the  interregnum, 
by  which  such  a  refusal  was  forbidden,  without  the  previous 
assent  of  the  counsellors  of  the  doge-elect ;  and  even  if  this 
were  obtained,  it  was  afterward  necessary  that  their  decision 
should  be  approved  by  two-thirds  of  the  grand  council. 
Contarini,  unable  to  oppose  these  statutes,  was  at  length 
compelled  to  exchange  the  honourable  repose  of  private  life 
for  the  splendid  slavery  of  the  Venetian  throne.  It  is  said 
that  his  reluctance  arose  in  great  measure  from  the  remem- 
brance of  a  prediction  which  had  been  made  to  him  some 
years  before,  by  a  dervis  in  Syria,  in  which  he  was  fore- 
warned that  heavy  calamities  would  befall  his  country  if 
ever  he  accepted  her  sovereignty.  But  there  is  little  occa- 
sion to  invent  supernatural  causes  for  conduct  which  may 
be  readily  explained  on  very  obvious  motives.  Fresh  re- 
straints had  been  recently  imposed  upon  the  doge  ;  and  the 
petty  regulations  framed  for  his  household,  and  for  the 
control  even  of  his  personal  habits,  must  in  themselves 
have  sufficed  to  revolt  a  generous  spirit.  As  if  the  senate 
distrusted  the  honesty  of  their  sovereign  in  money  trans- 
actions, the  avvogadori  were  instructed  to  watch  that  the 
bills  of  the  ducal  establishment  were  discharged  monthly ; 
and  if  there  should  be  any  arrear  in  them,  they  were  to 
keep  back  from  the  revenue  enough  for  their  payment.  No 
repair  could  be  undertaken  in  the  palace  at  the  public  cost 


/ 


v'J 


INTRIGUES  OF  FRANCESCO  DA  CARRARA.      209 

without  the  consent  of  two-thirds  of  the  grand  council,  and 
a  sumptuary  regulation  fixed  the  sum  allotted  for  the  enter- 
tainment of  strangers  of  note  on  a  scale  of  very  mean 
economy.     Neither  the  doge  nor  any  of  his  family  was  per- 
mitted to  receive  any  present,  or  to  hold  any  fief,  estate,  or 
immoveable   property  without   the    narrow  limits   of  the 
Dogado,*  and  those  who  already  possessed  such  were  com- 
pelled to  sell  it.     Lastly,— it  is  with  shame  and  astonish- 
ment that  we  write  it,— an  especial  provision  was  made, 
that  the  doge  should  furnish  himself  with  not  less  than  one 
robe  of  cloth  of  gold  within  six  months  after  his  election. 
The  prying  insolence  of  this  tyranny  over  the  individual  was 
felt,  perhaps,  more  acutely  than  even  the  additional  political 
bondage  by  which  it  was  thought  fitting  to  diminish  his 
shadow  of  authority,  when  it  was  enacted  that  in  the  coun- 
cils the  opinion  of  the  doge  must  always  comcide  with  that 
of  the  avvogadori;  because,  by  the  very  nature  of  their 
posts,  those  oflicers,  it  was  said,  were  bound  to  vote  for  the 
interests  of  the  republic. 

The  new  reign  was  eariy  involved  in  trouble.  Francesco 
da  Carrara  had  never  forgiven  an  invasion  of  his  territory, 
■which,  during  the  late  Hungarian  war,  he  had  provoked  by 
faithlessness  and  ingratitude.  By  continued  petty  encroach- 
ments on  the  frontiers  of  the  republic,  he  roused  angry 
remonstrances;  and  but  for  the  mediation  of  the  ^'^' 
King  of  Hungary,  he  would  have  been  again  involved  ^^^^' 
in  war.  A  truce  for  two  years  was  concluded,  and  this 
period  was  treacherously  employed  by  Carrara  in  establish- 
ing a  secret  influence  in  the  very  heart  of  the  Venetian 
councils.  Through  the  artifices  of  Bartolomeo,  a  monk  of 
St.  Jerome,  he  won  over  to  his  views  some  of  the  highest 
officers  of  the  government ;  and  two  presidents  of  the  XL., 
an  avvogadore^  and  a  privy  counsellor  of  the  doge  basely- 
sold  themselves  to  betray  the  secrets  of  their  country.  His 
partial  success  encouraged  Carrara  in  designs  of  yet  blacker 
character ;  and  although  it  is  not  possible  to  speak  with 
accuracy  of  the  extent  of  the  conspiracy  which  he  organ- 
ized, there  can  be  Uttle  doubt  that  the  lives  of  the  chief 

*  The  hogndo  comprised  no  more  than  the  city  of  Venice,  the  Kles  of 
Malamocco,  Chiozza,  and  Brondolo,  and  the  narrow  slip  of  coast  betweeu 
ihe  mouths  of  the  Adige  aud  the  Musone. 

S2 


210 


INVASION  OF  PADUA. 


Venetian  nobles  were,  in  the  first  instance,  to  be  sacrificed. 
For  this  purpose,  troops  of  bravoes,  wretches  too  well  known 
in  Italian  history,  were  introduced,  from  time  to  time,  into 
the  city.      They  were  chiefly  distributed  in  the  quarter 
adjoining  St.  Mark's  ;  and  their  meetings  were  held  in  an 
obscure  house,  kept  by  a  woman  named  Gobba,  whose  son 
was  employed  in  making  the  assassins  familiarly  acquainted 
with  the  persons  of  their  intended  victims.     The  vigilance 
of  the  Council  of  Ten  detected  this  atrocious  union.     The 
woman  Gobba  claimed  merit  for  revelations  which  she  was 
unable  to  avoid,  and  her  life  was  spared  on  the  condition  of 
ten  years'  imprisonment.     Her  son  and  some  Venetians  of 
mean  condition  were  hanged.     The   minor  conspirators, 
after  confession  had  been  wrung  from  them  by  torture,  were 
dragged  through   the  streets   and  torn  asunder  by  wild 
horses.      The  monk  Bartolomeo  and  two  of  the  nobles 
whom  he  had  seduced  were  condemned  to  secret  execution 
in  their  dungeons  ;  and  the  milder  sentence  of  the  two  other 
patricians,  who  were  less  guilty,  or  more  powerful,  was  a 
year's   imprisonment   and  perpetual   exclusion   from  the 
councils.     A  crime  of  yet  more  heinous  nature  than  that 
of  limited  assassination  was  charged  upon  Carrara  and  his 
agents.     It  was  said  that  he  intended  to  poison  the  reser- 
voirs from  which  Venice  derives  her  supplies  of  water ;  and 
thus  to  involve  the  whole  city  in  destruction  at  a  single 
blow.     Whatever  might  be  the  foundation  for  this  report, 
it  was  well  calculated  to  sustain  popular  hatred  against 
Carrara ;  and  the  signory  encouraged  the  belief  by  placing 
sentinels  over  the  public  cisterns.     The  open  punishment 
of  the  chief  offender  himself  was,  at  the  moment,  beyond  the 
power  of  Venice  ;  but  there  is  too  much  reason  to  believe 
that  she  did  not  scruple  to  retort  his  own  weapons  of 
treachery.     Francesco  da  Carrara  had  many  enemies  ;  and 
among  them  few  more  bitter  than  his  brother  Marsilio. 
The  latter  was  invited  to  Venice ;  and  a  wide  extent  of 
charity  is  required  if  we  would  believe  that  the  signory  was 
unacquainted  with  a  design  which  he  there  unsuccessfully 
meditated  against  the  life  of  Francesco- 

But  the  year  was  not  permitted  to  close  without  an  inva- 
sion of  the  Paduan  territories,  where  the  King  of  Hungary 
succoured  his  ally,  and  fortune  at  first  smiled  upon  his 
arms.     The  Venetians  redoubled  their  efforts,  routed  tha 


ADVANTAGEOUS  PEACE. 


211 


confederates^  in  a  second  battle,  and  took  their  general 
prisoner.     The  Hungarians  retreated,  and  their  de- 
sertion compelled  the  Lord  of  Padua  to  accept  terms    .^'I^' 
which  the  victors  imposed   upon  hun,  and  which         ®' 
sufficiently  evinced  that  their  resentment  was  undiminished. 
The  boundary  line  of  the  two  states  was  to  be  adjusted  by  a 
commission  framed  entirelv  of  Venetians.     Carrara  was  to 
pay  by  instalments  230,000  ducats  to  the  public  coffers, 
and  300  ducats  annually  to  the  treasury  of  St.  Mark ;  he 
was  to  demolish  all  his  forts,  to  surrender  certain  towns  as 
hostages,  to  permit  an  entirely  free  trade  to  Venetian  mer- 
chants within  his  territories,  to  draw  his  whole  supply  of 
salt  from  the  works  of  Chiozza  ;  and  last,  and  most  galling 
of  all,  m  his  own  person  or  that  of  his  son,  to  proffer  an 
oath  of  fidelity,  and  to  solicit  pardon  on  his  knees*  from 
the  republic.     This  humiliating  condition  was  fulfilled,  as 
may  be  supposed,  by  his  representative ;    and  the  aid  of 
Petrarch  was  required  for  the  composition  and  the  delivery 
of  a  speech  which  it  was  thought  necessary  should  accom- 
pany the  ceremony.    On  the  first  day  on  which  an  audience 
was  granted  for  the  purpose,  the  poet's  memory  failed  him  ; 
and  unable  to  recollect  that  which  he  had  written,  he  was 
obliged  to  request  another  sitting  of  the  council  for  his 
reception.     It  was  granted  on  the  following  morning,  and 
his  speech  was  then  much  applauded,  but  it  has  never  been 
printed. ' 

Little  sagacity  is  needed  to  determine  that  a  peace  so 
unequal  carried  in  its  bosom  the  seeds  of  eariy  war.     The 
depression  of  Venice  became  necessary  to  Carrara,  not  less 
for  the  restoration  of  his  diminished  power,  than  for  the 
satisfaction  of  his  injured  pride  :  and  no  artifice  was  want- 
mg,  no  intrigue  was  spared,  to  excite  and  to  combine  an 
ovemhelmmg   league  which   should   secure  his  revenge. 
He  first  succeeded  m  instigating  the  Duke  of  Austria 
once  again  to  renew  hostilities  ;  but  this  dispute  was     ^'  ^* 
speedily  adjusted  by  the  surrender  of  the  towns  to    ^'^'°' 
which  Leopold  asserted  a  claim ;   for  the  signorj-  already 
descTied  the  far  more  heavy  tempest  which  was  gathering 
m  th«  horizon,  and  hastened  to  free  themselves  from  an 
enemy  whom  it  was  still  in  their  power  to  conciliate. 
On  this  occasion  they  received  good  service   from  the 
*  Gataro,  Int.  Padovana,  avud  Muratori,  xvii.  196. 


313 


CANNON  FtRST  EMPLOYED  IN  ITALY. 


"WEAKNESS  OF  THE  EASTERN  EMPIRE. 


213 


Count  di  Collalto,  one  of  the  most  powerful  lords  of  the 
Trevisano.  He  warned  them  of  the  preparations  of  Leopold, 
of  which  they  were  wholly  unsuspicious  ;  and  his  fidelity 
was  the  more  remarkable,  because  on  a  former  occasion  ho 
had  appeared  in  arms  against  the  republic.  When  Louis 
of  Hungary  unsuccessfully  besieged  Treviso,  Collalto  had 
served  under  him  with  great  distinction,  and  it  is  to  the 
sagacity  of  that  prince  that  the  count's  subsequent  line  of 
politics  may  be  referred.  "  I  have  an  esteem  for  you,  Col- 
lalto," said  the  king  one  day  to  hun  after  his  retreat  to 
Buda,  "  remember  the  advice  which  I  am  going  to  offer. 
Never  be  guilty  of  the  folly  of  quarrelling  with  neighbours 
who  are  more  powerful  than  yourself,  under  the  hope  of 
being  assisted  by  a  distant  ally.  It  is  quite  as  dangerous 
as  having  your  house  on  fire  while  water  is  out  of  reach." 
The  count  perceived  the  wisdom  of  the  aphorism,  and  from 
that  hour  attached  himself  firmly  to  Venice. 

A  petty  war  which  occupied  part  of  the  years  1376  and 
1377  would  not  deserve  mention  here,  but  that  it  is  re- 
markable for  the  first  use  of  cannon  in  Italy.  They  wero 
employed  by  the  Venetians  in  an  attack  upon  Guero  ;  and 
the  chronicler  of  Treviso  has  described  them  with  no  small 
tokens  of  astonishment.  "  These,"  says  Redusio,  "  are 
huge  iron  weapons,  bored  throughout  their  whole  length, 
and  having  large  mouths.  Within  them  is  placed  a  round 
stone,  upon  a  powder  composed  of  sulphur,  charcoal,  and 
saltpetre.  This  powder  is  ignited  at  a  hole,  and  the  stone 
is  discharged  with  such  violence  that  no  wall  can  resist  it. 
You  would  believe  that  God  was  thundering." 

While  the  resentment  cherished  by  Carrara  was  seeking 
instruments  for  its  gratification  in  Italy,  a  dispute  in  a  far 
distant  quarter  was  preparing  for  him  a  more  powerful  ally 
than  he  had  as  yet  contemplated.  It  awakened  a  fourth 
struggle  between  Venice  and  Genoa,  more  bloody  than 
any  in  which  they  had  been  engaged  heretofore,  and  in  its 
course  leading  each  republic  to  the  extreme  verge  of  de- 
struction. It  order  to  obtain  a  clear  view  of  the  origin  of 
this  war,  we  must  briefly  revert  to  some  earlier  transac- 
tions ;  premising  that  the  Genoese,  after  three  years'  expe- 
rience of  the  government  of  Visconti,  had  expelled  his 
lieutenant,  and  by  another  revolution  in  1356,  had  again 
established  their  former  ducal  administration. 


The  increasing  power  of  the  Turks  was  already  begin- 
ning to  menace  that  conquest  of  the  Greek  empire  which, 
ere  the  lapse  of  many  years,  was  to  be  entirely  effected  ; 
and  in  1369,  the  Palseologus  (Calojohannes  V.)  who  held 
its  uncertain  sceptre,  traversed  Europe  to  solicit  aid  against 
the  Infidels  by  whom  he  was  beset.  Urban  V.  accepted 
with  distinguished  favour  the  renunciation  of  the  errors  of 
the  Eastern  church  which  this  weak  prince  offered  at  his 
feet.  The  holy  father  was  prodigal  of  bulls ;  and  when 
the  emperor  held  the  bridle  of  his  mule,  he  furnished  him 
with  letters  missive  to  every  power  in  Christendom.  But 
the  season  of  crusades  was  past ;  from  each  court  which 
Calojohannes  visited  he  encountered  cold  refusals  ;  and  at 
Venice,  to  which  he  had  always  shown  especial  favour,  he 
did  little  more  than  raise  with  difficulty  a  suflScient  loan  to 
defray  the  expenses  of  his  homeward  voyage.  At  the  mo- 
ment of  his  embarkation  a  question  arose  about  sureties : 
the  emperor  had  not  any  to  offer,  and  it  was  intimated  to  him 
by  the  signory,  that  without  these  or  the  repayment  of  his 
debt  he  could  not  be  permitted  to  depart.  The  degraded 
prince  applied  to  his  eldest  son,  Andronicus,  to  reheve  him 
from  this  shameful  embarrassment,  but  he  was  rcfiised ; 
and  unless  he  had  been  assisted  by  the  filial  piety  of  his 
younger  son,  Manuel,  he  must  have  been  detained  by  his 
creditors.  Hopeless  of  aid  from  the  Christian  sovereigns, 
the  unhappy  monarch,  on  his  return  to  Constantinople,  be- 
came the  tributary  and  the  vassal  of  the  first  Amurath,  and, 
sunk  in  voluptuousness,  he  endeavoured  to  forget  his  dis- 
honour. He  was  aroused  from  this  slumber  by  a  dangerous 
conspiracy.  At  Adrianople,  which,  wrested  from  his  crown, 
had  become  the  capital  of  the  Othmans,  Andronicus  had 
formed  an  intimate  connexion  with  Sauzes,  the  son  of  Amu- 
rath. Both  of  these  young  princes  regarded  with  like  im- 
patience the  barrier  interposed  between  themselves  and  the 
throne,  of  which  they  coveted  immediate  possession  ;  and 
in  the  death  of  their  fathers  they  saw  the  surest  step  to 
power.  The  conspiracy  was  discovered  and  suppressed  by 
Amurath,  who,  having  deprived  his  own  son  of  sight,  or, 
according  to  other  authorities,  having  beheaded  him,*  dis- 

•  Caresino,  the  continuator  of  Andrea  Dandolo's  Chronicle  (ap.  Mu- 
raloii,  xii.  443),  represeata  Ainuratb  as  adopting  ilie  miidejr  punishmeut. 


214 


REVOLUTIONS  IN  CONSTANTINOPLE. 


missed  Andronicus  in  chains  to  his  father,  with  a  warning 
that  he  should  estimate  the  fidelity  of  the  Greek  emperor 
according  to  the  measure  of  the  punishment  which  he  in- 
flicted.    Calojohannes,  no  less  cruel  than  cowardly,  ex- 
ceeded the  Barbarian  in  severity,  and  ordered  the  blinding 
not  only  of  Andronicus,  but  also  of  his  son,  a  child  of  five 
years  old.     The  executioners,  from  mercy  or  incapacity, 
performed  their  horrid  task  but  ineffectually  ;  and  the  boil- 
ing vinegar  which  they  applied  destroyed  only  one  eye  in 
Andronicus,  and  left  his  son  with  a  distorted  and  imperfect 
vision  in  both.     During  two  years'  imprisonment,  the  cap- 
tive prince  intrigued  with  the  Genoese  of  Pera,  whom  the 
reigning  emperor  had  never  favoured.     By  their  assistance 
an  escape  was  planned  and  executed :  the  persons  of  Calo- 
johannes and  his  other  sons  were  secured;  and  the  con- 
flicting parties,  exchanging  fortunes,  were  transferred,  the 
one  from  his  palace  to  the  dungeon  recently  occupied  by 
his  son,  the  other  from  that  dungeon  to  his  father's 
jgyg    throne.     The  price   stipulated  by  the  Genoese  for 
this  service  was  the  cession  of  Tenedos,  an  island 
important  to  their  commerce,  as  it  commanded  the  mouth 
of  the  Dardanelles.    But  the  natives,  as  well  as  the  governor 
of  that  island,  were  attached  to  the  dethroned  emperor ; 
and  refusing  to  acknowledge  the  usurpers,  they  closed  their 
ports  against  the  galleys  despatched  by  the  Genoese  to  take 
possession.     This  intended  change  of  masters  in  Tenedos, 
and  the  entire  control  which  Genoa  now  exercised  over  the 
throne  of  Constantinople,  were  matters  of  high  import  to 
Venice  ;  but  the  hostile  measures  which  there  can  be  little 
doubt  she  would  sooner  or  later  have  adopted,  in  order  to 
dispute  the  virtual  mastery  of  the  East,  were  much  accele- 
rated by  the  romantic  daring  of  an  individual  citizen. 

Few  families  existed  in  the  Lagune  more  ancient  or  more 
illustrious  than  that  of  Zeno.  Carlo,  destined  so  much  to 
increase  the  celebrity  of  his  house,  was  the  son  of  Pietro 
Zeno,  who,  among  other  public  charges,  had  held  the 
government  of  Padua,  and  of  Agnes,  sprung  from  the  equally 
noble  stock  of  Dandolo.     The  patronage  of  Clement  VI. 

and  he  is  followed  by  Gibbon  and  Daru.  Thranza  (i.  16)  asserts  the 
rererse.  We  fear  the  Byzantine  is  most  likely  to  be  correct  of  the  two, 
end  80  he  has  been  held  by  Sismondi. 


/ 


VOUTH  OF  CARLO  ZENO. 


216 


had  decided  the  course  of  life  in  which  the  young  Zeno 
was  to  be  engaged  ;   and  that  pontiff,  afler  charging  hun- 
self  with  his  education  when  he  had  been  left  an  orphan  in 
early  years  by  the  death  of  his  father  in  an  expedition 
aaainst  Smyrna,  bestowed  upon  him  a  rich  benefice  at 
Patras.     The  long  series  of  hazards  to  which  Carlo  Zeno 
was  exposed  commenced  even  with  his  youth.     During  his 
preparatory  studies  at  Padua  he  was  attacked  by  a  robber, 
plundered,  and  left  for  dead ;  and  his  pursuits,  on  his  re- 
covery, appear  to  have  been  but  little  adapted  to  the  grave 
habits  of  a  future  ecclesiastic.     Stripped  of  all  that  he  pos- 
sessed at  the  gaming-table,  he  converted  his  books  into 
money,  abandoned  the  university,  and  joining  some  of  the 
roving  bands  which  at  that  time  formed  the  Italian  armies, 
he  served  with  them  during  the  next  five  years.     His  re- 
appearance at  Venice  surprised  his  friends,  who  believed 
him  to  be  long  since  dead  ;   nor  is  it  likely  that  their  as- 
tonishment was  decreased  when  they  found  that  the  Con- 
dotticre  had  returned  in  order  to  take  possession  of  his 
benefice.     On  his  arrival  at  Patras,  however,  it  was  in  his 
military  rather  than  his  ecclesiastical  character  that  he  was 
to  be  first  distinguished  ;   for  the  town  being  attacked  by 
the  Turks,  Zeno  placed  himself  at  the  head  of  the  garrison, 
conducted  them  to  a  sortie,  repulsed  the  besiegers,  and  was 
carried  from  the  ditch  so  grievously  wounded,  that  he  would 
have  been  buried  but  for  an  opportune  show  of  faint  signs 
of  life  while  his  comrades  were  preparing  for  his  interment. 
Even  when  his  scars  were  healed,  it  was  not  in  the  fates 
that  he  should  become  a  canon ;  for  a  duel  postponed  his 
ordination,  and  soon  afterward  he  interposed  a  yet  further 
barrier  to  a  spiritual  life  by  marrying  a  beautiful  Greek. 
He  then  engaged  in  the  service  of  the  King  of  Cyprus,  by 
whom  he  was  employed  in  numerous  missions  of  iniport- 
ance,  which  extended  his  travels  into  France,  Germany, 
and  England.     On  the  death  of  his  first  wife,  he  married  a 
daughter  of  the  noble  house  of  Justiniani ;   and  employing 
himself  in  commerce,  he  made  frequent  voyages  to  the  Le- 
vant and  Black  Sea.     At  the  moment  of  which  we  are  now 
speaking,  he  was  engaged  on  some  private  affairs  in  Con- 
stantinople. 

The  turbulent  youth  and  wild  adventures,  the  careless 
demeanour  and  undaunted  bravery  of  Carlo  Zeno,   had 


d 


216 


CALOJOHANNES  AND  CARLO  ZENO. 


f 


OCCUPATION  OF  TENEDOS. 


217 


acquired  for  him  great  notoriety,  and  seemed  to  point  him  out 
as  a  fitting  agent  in  any  desperate  enterprise.     Between  the 
dethroned  emperor  and  the  wife  of  his  jailer  a  tender  bond 
had  at  one  time  existed  ;  and  the  remembrance,  perhaps  the 
renewal,  of  her  former  favour  easily  gained  this  woman  to 
the  interests  of  the  captive.     Calojohannes  was  well  ac- 
quainted with  Zeno,  from  his  frequent  visits  to  Constanti- 
nople, and  he  now  employed  his  mistress  to  open  a  commu- 
nication with  his  former  friend.     Little  else  than  the  mere 
peril  of  the  attempt  was  needed  to  excite  Zeno  to  under- 
take it ;  and  he  ardently  coveted  the  glory  of  avenging  an 
injured  parent  upon  an  unnatural  child,  of  restoring  an  im- 
prisoned emperor  to  his  throne,  and  at  the  same  time  of 
rendering  an  important  service  to  his  own  country.     Eight 
hundred  resolute  men  were  secretly  prepared  to  obey  hi» 
summons  ;  and  with  this  petty  band  he  doubted  not  to  sur- 
prise, to  overawe,  and  to  guide  the  timid,  luxurious,  and 
fickle  population  of  Constantinople. 

The  tower  of  Amena,  in  which  Calojohannes  was  con- 
fined, overlooked  the  sea ;  and  a  boat  and  a  rope-ladder,  one 
night,  conveyed  Zeno  to  the  chamber  of  the  illustrious 
prisoner.  But  when  he  urged  the  imprisoned  emperor  to 
descend,  overcome  either  by  fear,  or,  as  he  pleaded,  by  pa- 
rental  affection,  Calojohannes  refused  to  leave  behind  him 
two  sons,  who  shared  his  captivity  in  other  cells,  and  whose 
lives,  on  the  discovery  of  his  escape,  would  probably  be 
sacrificed  to  the  vengeance  of  their  savage  brother.  "  These 
tears  and  reflections,"  answered  Zeno,  "  are  now  too  late  : 
I  quit  you,  and  you  must  choose  your  own  course  without 
the  loss  of  a  moment ;  but  if  you  do  not  follow,  count  no 
more  on  my  assistance."  His  entreaties  were  unavailing  ; 
and  hastily  letting  himself  down  again  from  the  window,* 
he  reached  his  comrades  in  sufficient  tune  to  disband  them 
without  discovery. 

The  emperor  continued  to  languish  in  confinement  till 
impatience  triumphed  over  his  fears.  He  renewed  his  inter- 
course with  Carlo  Zeno  ;  and  in  order  yet  further  to  stimu- 
late a  fresh  attempt,  he  transmitted  to  him  an  official  grant 
of  the  sovereignty  of  Tenedos  in  favour  of  Venice,  bearing 
the  imjiress  of  the  imperial  signature.  Zeno,  overjoyed  at 
this  unlooked-for  bounty  of  fortune,  returned  a  prompt  ac- 
ceptance of  the  undertaking.     His  answer  was  intrusted  to 


the  former  messenger,  and  unhappily,  being  lost  by  her  on 
its  road,  fell  into  the  hands  of  Andronicus,.  who  obtained 
further  confessions  from  the  miserable  woman  by  torture. 
Zeno,  more  fortunate,  received  timely  forewarning  of  the 
discovery  of  his  plot ;  and  throwing  himself  into  a  boat, 
gained  a  Venetian  squadron  then  convoying  some  merchant- 
men through  the  Propontis,  under  the  command  of  his 
father-in-law,  Justiniani. 

If  the  admiral  was  surprised  at  the  hurried  apparition  of 
Zeno,  how  much  more  so  was  he  on  hearing  the  cause  of 
his  flight,  and  on  reading  the  im};ortant  document  which 
he  bore  with  him.  Its  validity,  as  granted  by  a  prisoner, 
was  of  httle  moment,  provided  obedience  could  be  secured 
to  it  in  Tenedos ;  and  the  well-known  disposition  of  the 
governor  rendered  such  an  event  highly  probable.  Zeno  and 
Justiniani  set  sail  with  ten  galleys  to  that  island,  were 
received  with  open  arms,  and  raised  the  banner  of^t.  Mark 
on  its  shores. 

There  had  not  been  time,  even  if  Justiniani  and  his  son- 
in-law  had  been  so  inclined,  to  communicate  their  intentions 
to  the  senate  ;  and  the  deed  having  been  now  done  on  their 
own  responsibility,  it  remained  to  secure  the  ratification  of 
it  from  their   government.     For  that  purpose,  leaving  a 
strong  garrison  behind  them,  they  proceeded  to  Venice,  and 
by  representing  that  the  grant  must  be  considered  binding, 
because  conferred  by  him  who  was  the  legitimate  empecor ; 
that  such  an  aggression  was  not  wanting  to  excite  the  enmity 
of  Andronicus,  who  had  always  shown  hostile  dispositions  : 
and  that  even  if  it  did  so,  his  weakness  rendered  him  an 
inconsiderable  foe ;  above  all,  by  displaying  the  vast  com- 
mercial importance  of  Tenedos,  and  that  if  it  did  not  belong 
to  Venice,  it  would  assuredly  fall  into  the  hands  of  Genoa° 
they  calmed  the  fears  and  roused  the  ambition  of  the  council, 
which  at  first  had  viewed   the  transaction  wuh   dismay. 
Persuaded,  however,  by  the  arguments  now  oflTered  to  them, 
they  despatched  reinforcements  to  the  garrison  of  Tenedos, 
and  gave  the  command  of  them,  as  he  richly  merited,  to 
Carlo  Zeno  himself.     Antonio  Veniero  embarked  with  him 
as  a  colleague. 

The  consequences  which  had  been  foreseen  by  the  Vene- 
tian government  were  in  part  realized.     Andronicus  viewed 
this  seizure  of  a  dependency  of  the  empire  with  heavy 
Vol.  I.— T 


218 


WAR  WITH  ANDRONICUS. 


indignation  ;  and  the  Genoese,  mortified  both  by  their  own 
loss  and  by  the  better  fortune  of  their  rival,  eagerly  stimu- 
lated him  to  revenge.  All  Venetians  within  the  imperial 
territories  were  arrested,  and  their  property  sequestered. 
The  Genoese  provided  two-and-twenty  galleys,  and  the  em- 
peror embarked  an  army,  assumed  its  command  in  person, 
and  set  sail  for  Tenedos  in  November,  1377.  Veniero 
,077  undertook  the  defence  of  the  citadel,  and  the  out- 
works were  intrusted  to  Zeno,  with  three  hundred 
infantry  and  a  few  companies  of  archers.  In  two  attacks 
on  two  succeeding  days,  in  each  of  which  he  was  wounded 
— on  the  latter  thrice  and  severely — Zeno  repulsed  the 
Greeks  with  great  carnage  ;  for  the  fury  of  his  soldiers  wa& 
roused  to  the  uttermost  wlien  they  beheld  their  general  fall 
senseless  and  exhausted  from  loss  of  blood.  Andronicus, 
perceiving  that  his  eflbrts  were  vain,  hastened  back  to  Con- 
stantinople, leaving  to  the  Venetians  the  right  of  conquest 
in  addition  to  that  of  cession.  His  return  was  marked  with 
yet  greater  misfortune.  Calojohannes,  by  the  aid  of  some 
Venetians,  who  bribed  his  guards,  escaped  from  prison  ;  and 
taking  refuge  at  the  court  of  Amurath,  secured  his  aid  by 
the  surrender  of  Philadelphia,  the  sole  city  remaining  to 
the  emperor  without  the  Bosphorus.  Andronicus,  unable 
to  resist  the  demands  of  the  powerful  sultan,  restored  the 
throne  to  his  father,  who  immediately  rewarded  Manuel,  his 
second  and  more  faithful  son,  by  calling  him  to  a  participa- 
tion of  the  imperial  authority. 

Another  cause  of  irritation  between  Genoa  and  Venice 
had  arisen  in  a  different  quarter  of  the  East.  On 
1372  *^^  assassination  of  Pietro  Lusignano  by  his  bro- 
thers, the  throne  of  Cyprus  had  passed  to  his  son, 
another  Pietro.  It  was  customary  that  the  kings  of  Cyprus 
should  be  crowned  twice — once  at  Nicosia  as  sovereigns  of 
the  island,  and  again  at  Famagosta,  the  port  from  which 
the  crusaders  had  embarked,  under  their  empty  title  of 
Kings  of  Jerusalem.  During  the  latter  celebration,  a  dis- 
pute concerning  precedence  occurred  between  the  Genoese 
and  Venetian  consuls ;  and  the  anger  of  the  former  was 
inflamed  by  the  decision  of  the  Cypriote  authorities  in  favour 
of  their  rivals.  The  contest  was  renewed  at  the  royal 
banquet  which  succeeded  ;  and  that  solemnity  was  con- 
verted into  another  feast  of  the  Centaurs  and  the  Lapithse, 


i 


AFFRAY  WITH  THE  GENOESE  IN  CYPRUS.      219 

fey  the  fury  of  the  opponents.  The  Genoese,  not  content 
with  launching  the  massive  goblets  which  decorated  the 
board  at  their  adversaries,  had  recourse  to  daggers,  which  they 
wore  concealed  beneath  their  cloaks.  This  proof  of  afore- 
thought violence  was  considered  by  the  Cypriotes  not  only 
as  a  breach  of  the  respect  due  to  the  hospitality  of  the  palace, 
but  also  as  intimating  a  design  upon  the  royal  person.  With- 
out further  investigation  the  offenders  were  put  to  death  by 
summary  process  ;  and  the  Cypriote  population,  fired  by  the 
belief  of  treason  against  their  prince,  rose  in  a  body  through- 
out the  island,  pillaged  the  Genoese,  and  so  bloodily  pur- 
sued them,  that  but  one  mutilated  individual  escaped  with 
life  to  convey  the  heavy  tidings  of  this  massacre  to  his 
countrymen. 

The  Genoese,  indignant  at  this  violence,  speedily  des- 
patched an  armament  to  revenge  it,  and  Damiano  ^  ^ 
Catani  took  possession  of  Nicosia  and  Paphos  in  jg^g 
the  summer  of  1373.  Forty  thousand  men  were 
embarked  soon  after,  under  the  brother  of  the  doge,  for  the 
siege  of  Famagosta.  That  city  resisted  but  seven  days, 
when,  by  its  surrender,  the  king,  his  uncles,  and  all  the 
chief  authorities  fell  into  the  power  of  the  invaders,  and  the 
submission  of  the  whole  island  rapidly  followed.  The  con- 
querors are  described,  according  as  the  writers  of  the  times 
espoused  their  cause  or  that  of  Venice,  to  have  exhibited 
very  unusual  moderation,  or  to  have  borne  themselves  with 
great  harshness.  If  the  outrage  which  they  had  endured 
be  called  to  mind,  it  is  probable  that  the  first  of  these  repre- 
sentations is  most  correct :  for  only  three  lives  were  sacri- 
ficed on  the  scaffold  in  retaliation  for  the  popular  massacre  ; 
and  though  hostages  and  a  tribute  were  demanded,  Lusig- 
nano was  still  allowed  to  retain  the  kingdom  which  he  had 
justly  forfeited. 

Yet,  even  if  the  treatment  were  really  lenient,  enough 
cause  of  offence  remained  to  the  (^yprioies  ;  and  it  can  be 
no  matter  of  surprise  that  Lusignano  gladly  learned  the 
dispute  concerning  Tenedos,  and  hastened  to  propose  a 
secret  alliance  with  the  Venetians  against  Genoa.  Two 
princes  of  Italy  were  induced  to  form  a  like  engage- 
ment ;  the  Marquis  di  Carreto  occupied  Castel-Franco, 
Noli,  and  Albenga  ;  and  Visc^nti,  the  Lord  of  Milan,  whose 


I 


I  « 

1  I 


220 


THE  WAR  OF  CHIOZZA. 


daughter  had  been  married  to  Lusignano,  consented  to 
employ  the  one  hundred  thousand  florins  destined  for  her 
portion,  m  an  invasion  of  Liguria.      Slight  as  these  aids 
miaht  be,  Venice  rejoiced  in  their  acquisition;  for  never 
had  she  greater  need  of  friends.     The  Genoese  attributed 
to  her  agency  the  troubles  which  distracted  them  in  Greece 
m  Cyprus,  and  nearer  home  ;  and  Francesco  da  Carrara 
had  long  restlessly  coveted  revenge.     Parties  thus  disposed 
were  easily  associated  ;  and  the  crafty  and  active  spirit  of 
Carrara  succeeded  in  negotiations  with  other  princes  scarcely 
less  jealous  than  himself  of  the  wealth,  the  power,  or  the 
pnde  of  Venice.     W^ith  the  Genoese  and  the  Lord  of  Padua 
were  united  the  King  of  Hungary,  the  Patriarch  of  Aquileia, 
who  possessed  Friuli,  the  brothers  de  la  Scala,  Lords  of 
Verona,  the  city  of  Ancona,  the  Duke  of  Austria,  and  the 
(^ueen  of  Naples.     Such  was  the  formidable  league  encoun- 
lered  by  Venice  m  the  momentous  contest  which  we  arc 
about  to  relate  ;  and  against  so  numerous  and  powerful 
enemies  did  she  embark,  almost  single-handed,  in  the  memo- 
rable Wah  of  Chiozza. 


CHAPTER  Vm. 

FROM    A.  D.  1378   TO    A.  D.  138L 
The  War  of  Chiozza. 


DOGE. 
Andrea  Contarini. 


The  military  events  by  which  the  war  of  Chiozza  opened 
were  of  little  importance.  Carrara,  driven  from  his  first 
line  of  operations  in  the  Trevisano  by  the  valour  and  activity 
of  Carlo  Zeno,  attempted  a  diversion  by  laying  siecre  to 
Mestre,  from  which  also  he  was  repulsed.  On^he^eas 
the  first  struggle  of  the  rival  nations  after  the  renewal  of 


l.iliSJr-Hr'ft.J^I'JS'---   t 


1..hi-<i!.»fallS^'  \'.'"j?aMlJjil*<fe^-.i»riij 


NAVAL    OPERATIONS. 


221 


|i' 


!    ii 


hostilities  took  place  near  the  mouth  of  the  Tiber ;     ^  p 
and  a  bloody  sacrifice  was  offered  to  Fortune  under    137a* 
the  very  ruins  of  her  temple  at  Antium.     The  squad- 
ron commanded  by  Victor  Pisani  counted  no  more     ^^®>'" 
than  fourteen  galleys.     The  Genoese,  under  Luigi  Fiesco, 
were  yet  fewer  in  number ;  but  their  ten  ships  were  either 
unable  or  unwilling  to  decline  battle.     It  was  not  that  the 
naval  forces  of  the  two  republics  had  been  diminished  since 
their  former  wars ;  but  hostilities  had  been  so  recently  de- 
clared, that  time  was  wanting  to  collect  sailors,  or  to  trans- 
fer them  from  merchant-vessels  to  ships  of  war ;  and  they 
burned  with  impatience  for  contest  ere  yet  fully  provided 
with  its  means.     On  this  occasion,  as  in  the  battle  of  the 
Bosphorus,  the  fleets  encountered  during  a  storm  ;  and  the 
fury  of  the  waves  deprived  the  Venetians  of  their  numerical 
advantage,  by  permitting  only  nine  ships  to  engage  on  each 
side.     The  result  was  unfavourable  to  the  Genoese;  one 
of  their  galleys  was  dashed  to  pieces  on  the  rocky  shore, 
five  surrendered  to  the  enemy,  and  the  remainder  were  pre- 
served only  by  the  violence  of  the  tempest,  which  forbade 
pursuit.     Even  of  the  prizes,  one  only  could  be  saved,  and 
the  Venetians  were  compelled  to  fire  the  others  ;  but  eight 
hundred  prisoners,  among  whom  were  Fiesco  himself  and 
eighteen  nobles,  remained  in  their  hands.     The  fickle  Geno- 
ese punished  their  civil  magistrate  for  a   disaster  which 
might  have  been  more  justly  attributed  to  the  fortune  of 
war;  and  a  fresh  revolution  compelled  the  abdication  of 
the  doge. 

The  three  galleys  which  escaped  directed  their  course, 
not  to  Genoa,  but  to  the  Adriatic;  and  there  forming  a 
junction  with  a  much  larger  force  under  Luciano  Doria, 
the  Genoese,  even  after  their  defeat,  insulted  the  Venetian 
capital ;  and  with  a  squadron  now  amounting  to  twenty-two 
ships,  intercepted  the  traders  which  approached  the  gulf, 
pillaged  and  burned  Grado  and  Caorlo,  and  found  supplies 
and  sure  anchorage  in  the  port  of  Zara.  Meantime,  Pisani, 
recalled  to  the  Adriatic,  coasted  Dalmatia,  possessed  himself 
of  Cattaro,  Sebenigo,  and  Arbo ;  and,  after  two  attacks, 
reluctantly  abandoned  all  hope  of  subduing  Trau.  The 
winter,  contrary  to  his  judgment,  was  passed  in  the  roads 
of  Pola  ;  for  though  his  squadron  needed  refitting,  the  sen- 
ate considered  Istna  too  important  to  be  left  defenceless 

T2 


222 


BATTLE    OF    POLA. 


Pola  afforded  few  of  those  materials  which  were  necessary 
for  his  re-equipment;  and,  yet  more  unhappily,  disease 
X.  D.  ^^S^^  ^o  show  itself  among  his  crew.  Its  ravages 
1379.  ^^^^  frightful ;  and  as  spring  returned,  of  the  thirty 
galleys  which  he  commanded,  only  six  could  be 
manned  for  service.  These,  however,  and  eleven  more 
which  had  been  despatched  from  home,  put  to  sea  for  the 
protection  of  some  Apulian  convoys.  With  his  squadron 
heavily  injured  by  a  storm,  the  loss  of  two  ships  captured 
after  having  been  driven  into  Ancona,  and  a  severe  wound 
received  in  a  skirmish  ofl'  Zara,  he  returned  to  his  former 
station,  weakened  and  discouraged. 

It  was  not  till  the  close  of  May  that  Luciano  Doria  was 
prepared  to  act  on  the  offensive,  and  he  then  appeared  off 
Pola  with  twenty-two  galleys.    Pisani's  force  now  amounted 
to  twenty-four ;  of  these,  however,  few  had  their  comple- 
ment of  men ;  and  he  remained  steadily  at  anchor,  deter- 
mined to  refuse  the  challenge.     But  his  officers  were  impa- 
tient of  their  long  confinement  in  a  distant  port ;  they  looked 
to  battle  as  affording  them  the  surest  chance  of  returning 
home;  the  provveditori  joined  in  this  rash  clamour;  and 
Pisani,  accused  of  pusillanimous  backwardness  to  combat, 
and  unable  any  longer  to  resist  their  importunity,  embarked 
such  of  the  inhabitants  as  he  could  prevail  upon  to  serve, 
and  gave  the  signal  for  attack.     No  more  than  twenty  of 
his  galleys  could  be  manned  ;  and  with  these  he  bore  down 
so  furiously,  that  in  the  first  onset  Doria's  own  ship  was 
taken,  and  himself  killed,  at  the  moment  in  which  he  raised 
his  beaver  to  reconnoitre  the  positions  of  the  two  fleets. 
The  Genoese,  fired  rather  than  dispirited  by  the  loss  of 
their  admiral,  redoubled  their  efforts  under  his  brother  Am- 
brosio,  and  two  thousand  Venetians  fell  in  the  short  space 
of  two  hours.     The  enemy  still  pressed  upon  Pisani  till  his 
line  was  broken,  and  all  then  became  rout  and  confusion. 
Fifteen  galleys  and  one  thousand  nine  hundred  prisoners, 
of  whom  twenty-four  were  of  noble  blood,  fell  into  the 
hands  of  the  conquerors.*     The  chronicler  of  this  war,  in 
relating  the  treatment  of  some  of  these  prisoners,  gives  a 
fearful  picture  of  the  cruelty  and  barbarism  of  the  times. 
Eight  hundred  were  mercenaries ;  and  on  the  arrival  of 

♦  Fl,  Biondius,  dec.  ij.  lib.  10,  ad  arm. 


<i^.J,j»t«,^-,:..'j.:t.  ■■■ 


CHANNELS  TO  THE  LAGUNE. 


223 


the  Genoese  in  Zara,  these  were  all  beheaded  in  cold  blood.* 
With  the  poor  remains  of  his  once  gallant  fleet,  now  reduced 
to  seven  vessels,  Pisani  took  refuge  in  Parcnzo  ;  and  thence, 
obeying  the  summons  of  the  council,  returned  to  Venice. 
It  was  enough  for  his  suspicious  masters  that  his  former 
glory  had  gained  the  people's  love  ;  and  the  past  triumphs, 
therefore,  which  might  justly  have  counterpoised  his  present 
reverse,  were  added,  by  their  jealousy,  to  the  sinking  scale. 
Pisani  had  never  coveted  popularity,  but  it  was  felt  that  he 
had  deserved  and  that  he  had  obtained  it ;  and  in  the  narrow 
policy  of  the  Venetian  government,  great  merit  was  con- 
sidered to  be  as  dangerous  to  the  security  of  the  state  as 
great  ambition.     If  the  voices  of  the  avvogadori  had  pre- 
vailed, his  punishment  would  have  been  death  ;  and  the 
sentence  was  deemed   lenient  which   condemned   him   to 
secret  imprisonment  and  five  years'  exclusion  from  all  pub- 
lic charges. 

It  was  plain  that  the  next  efforts  of  the  Genoese  would 
be  directed  against  the  capital  itself;  for  Venice  no  longer 
possessed  a  fleet  with  which  to  dispute  the  entrance  of  her 
own  sea  ;  and  the  sole  disposable  force  which  remained  to 
her,  except  one  which  had  been  despatched  to  a  distant 
station  under  Carlo  Zeno,  consisted  of  the  seven  galleys 
which  had  escaped  with  Pisani.  No  time,  therefore,  was 
to  be  lost  in  putting  into  such  a  state  of  defence  as  her 
crippled  means  permitted  the  line  of  seabank  which  edged 
the  Adriatic,  and  that  little  knot  of  islands  which  may  be 
called  her  suburbs.!  It  will  be  remembered  that  the  gulf 
between  the  Piave  and  the  Adige,  which  forms  the  LagunCy 
is  protected  by  a  chain  of  long  and  narrow  islands,  through 
which  six  channels  admit  a  passage  into  the  great  internal 
basin.  Of  these  the  most  northern  is  the  Porto  di  tre  Portiy 
navigable  only  by  the  very  smallest  craft.  The  island  of 
San  Erasmo  intervenes  between  this  and  a  second  opening, 

*  Chinazzo,  apud  Muratori,  xv.  721. 

t  Perhaps  Bellin,  in  his  Descript.  Geog.  du  Golfe  de  Venise,  is  the 
best  guide  to  the  modern  Lagvne.  He  is  brief,  but  distinct.  We  know 
not  on  what  authority  Sismoncii  has  made  a  different  distribution  of  the 
l)orts  from  that  commonly  adopted  and  given  in  the  text.  It  must  be 
confessed  that  the  mediaeval  topography  of  Chiozza  and  its  neighbourhood 
presents  a  good  deal  of  difficulty;  much  of  the  face  of  this  ever-shifting 
coast  is  changed  since  the  fourteenth  century  ;  and  many  of  the  places 
named  by  the  chroniclera  have  ceased  to  exist,  at  least  in  the  maps. 


224 


RAVAGES  BY  THE  GENOESE  FLEET. 


FORTIFICATION  OF  THE  LAGUNE. 


225 


bearing  the  name  of  the  saint  just  mentioned.  The  Porto 
di  San  Nicolo  del  Lido,  a  third  channel,  which  is  now  com- 
pletely choked,  at  the  period  of  which  we  are  treating  was 
the  most  important  of  all  the  inlets,  and  might  be  called 
especially  the  port  of  Venice.  Southward  from  this  strait, 
the  island  of  Lido,  and  the  long  sandy  Littorale  of  MalamoccOj 
extending  for  nearly  two  leagues,  form  an  outwork  in  front 
of  the  capital ;  and  are  disjoined  from  the  similar  barrier 
of  Pelestnna  by  the  Porto  di  Malamocco,  at  present  the 
deepest  channel.  At  the  southern  extremity  of  Pelestrina 
opens  the  Porto  di  Ckiozza,  taking  its  name  from  the  town 
to  which  it  leads.  Immediately  in  front  of  this  town  is 
placed  the  island  of  Brondolo ;  forming,  together  with  an 
opposite  bank  on  the  south,  the  sixth  and  last  channel, 
much  impeded  by  the  deposites  of  the  Brenta  and  the  Adige. 
The  direct  communication  between  Venice  and  Chiozza  is 
established  by  a  canal,  which  traverses  the  whole  length 
of  ihe  Lagune,  in  a  course  of  about  five-and-twenty  miles. 
Before  preparations  could  be  made  for  their  reception, 
the  Genoese  had  collected  a  force  of  eight-and-forty  galleys 
in  the  port  of  Zara,  sixteen  of  which  crossed  the  Adriatic, 

Jul  4  ^"^^^^®^^^°^6^chant-vessel  within  sight  of  Venice. 
y  •  The  captain,  finding  escape  hopeless",  took  to  his 
boats  and  saved  his  crew  ;  while  three  of  the  Genoese 
ships  pillaged  and  fired  their  prize.  None  of  their  yet  far 
greater  sufferings  during  the  following  calamitous  portion 
of  the  war  appears  to  have  affected  the  Venetians  more 
painfully  than  this  disgrace.  The  shore  was  thronged  with 
burghers  from  the  neighbouring  capital,  indignant  but  im- 
potent spectators  of  this  violation  of  their  native  borders. 
The  hostile  fleet  coasted  along  Malamocco,  burnt  the 
chief  village  on  Pelestrina,  and  anchoring  off  Chiozza,  took 
possession  of  its  eastern  suburb ;  which,  separated  from  it 
by  a  bridge,  was  then  known  as  the  Lesser  Chiozza.  The 
garrison,  having  attempted  a  sortie,  was  repulsed  with  much 
loss ;  and  the  Genoese,  satisfied  with  their  partial  success 
and  the  ignominy  inflicted  upon  their  enemy,  re-embarked 
and  made  sail  for  Ancona.  Thence,  after  a  few  days'  re- 
freshment, they  crossed  once  more  to  Zara ;  trailing  from 
the  sterns  of  their  galleys,  in  token  of  contempt  and  defiance, 
the  standards  captured  in  their  victory  over  Pisani.  If, 
instead  of  amusing  themselves  by  tliis   empty  show  of 


't 


triumph,  they  had  at  once  borne  down  upon  Chiozza,  so  pro- 
found was  the  terror  which  they  had  impressed  upon  its 
inhabitants,  so  incompetent  were  its  means  of  defence,  there 
is  little  doubt  but  that  it  must  have  fallen  an  easy  conquest. 
Meantime,  in  Venice  recourse  was  had  to  prayers  and 
processions ;  nor  were  more  active  measures  neglected. 
By  dint  of  extraordinary  exertion,  the  arsenal  equipped 
fifteen  galleys,  which  were  placed  under  the  command  of 
Taddeo  Justiniani ;  six  only  of  these,  however,  became 
available  for  service.  The  regular  mariners,  for  the  most 
part,  were  absent  with  Zeno  ;  and  so  indignant  were  the 
populace  at  the  undeserved  imprisonment  of  Pisani,  that, 
notwithstanding  the  imminent  peril  of  the  city,  volunteers 
could  not  be  found  to  enrol  their  names  in  the  levy.  In  the 
port  of  Lido,  works  of  extraordinary  strength  were  thrown 
up  for  the  protection  of  the  capital.  On  the  opposite 
shores,  at  its  entrance,  were  built  two  forts ;  the  germs, 
perhaps,  of  the  castles  which  now  defend  it,  rather  than,  as 
has  been  said,  those  castles  themselves ;  for  the  short  time 
allowed  for  preparation  appears  to  have  forbidden  struc- 
tures of  so  ranch  solidity.  The  strait,  on  either  hand, 
bristled  with  a  mixed  array  both  of  ancient  and  modem 
artillery,  the  use  of  the  former  not  having  as  yet  been  aban- 
doned, owing  to  the  still  imperfect  state  of  the  latter ;  and 
the  catapult,  the  balista,  and  the  perriere  were  mounted  by 
the  side  of  rude  and  unwieldy  cannon.  Vast  hulks  (*an- 
doni)  were  moored  fore  and  aft  below,  so  as  to  remain 
motionless  during  the  flux  and  reflux  of  the  ude.  These 
were  guarded  by  an  iron  cheval  de  frise,  and  connected  by  a 
massive  triple  chain,  which  crossed  the  channel.  Behind 
these  chains,  and  grappled  firmly  to  them  and  to  each 
other,  were  ranged  three  of  the  large  vessels  known  as 
cocche,  completely  armed,  and  protected  from  fire  by  a  thick 
covering  of  hides.  On  these,  and  above  the  chains,  were 
placed  fascines,  so  as  to  form  a  platform  capable  of  sup- 
porting yet  other  batteries  and  military  engines.  On  the 
land  above  Lido,  by  the  church  of  San  Nicolo,  a  deep 
fosse  was  excavated,  and  surmounted  by  a  palisade.  A 
cordon  of  sentinels  and  batteries  was  disposed  along  the 
agger e ;  and  at  Malamocco  two  decked  vessels  were  placed 
across  the  channel,  and  a  fort  was  built  on  the  shore. 
Similar  precautions  were  taken  at  Chiozza,  whose  garrison 


226 


SIEGE  OF  CHIOZZA. 


ITS  CAPTURE  BY  THE  GENOESE. 


227 


was  strengthened  by  a  reinforcement  of  a  thousand  men. 
Every  citizen  who  could  bear  arms  was  summoned  to  actual 
service  ;  and  in  order  more  effectually  to  obstruct  the  navi- 
gation of  the  Lao-une,  in  case  the  enemy  should  burst  the 
barriers  which  we  have  just  described,  and  succeed  in  pene- 
trating within,  the  piles  which  marked  the  deep  channels 
and  watercourses  were  carefully  removed. 

The  remainder  of  July  was  passed  by  Doria  in  collecting 
his  forces  at  Zara,  before  he  proceeded  to  execute  the  com- 
mission received  from  his  government  to  sack  Venice,  and 
to  carry  home  with  him  as  many  of  her  nobles  as  he  could 
secure ;  one  reservation  being  made,  that  he  should  obtain 
the  permission  of  Carrara.  So  anxiously  indeed  did  the 
Genoese  regard  the  continuance  of  their  alliance  with  that 
prince,  that  the  admiral  was  instructed  to  yield  obedience 
to  him  to  the  uttermost  point,  even  if  he  should  enjoin  the 
death  of  every  individual  prisoner.  Venice,  if  she  had 
been  taken,  had  little  therefore  to  expect  short  of  extermi- 
nation !*  Never  was  fleet  more  gallantly  provided  than  that 
which  Doria  now  commanded  ;  for,  besides  his  forty-eight 
ships  of  war,  he  was  accompanied  by  many  hundred  sail 
of  lighter  vessels,  provision-ships,  and  transports.  The 
most  lively  enthusiasm  was  kindled  among  his  followers  ; 
and  as  he  reviewed  them  before  orders  for  sailing  were 
issued,  he  was  received,  while  passing  from  ship  to  ship, 
with  deafenincr  shouts — "  To  Venice  !  to  Venice  !  Viva 
San  Giorgio!" 

Venice,  however,  for  the  present,  was  too  strongly  forti- 
fied to  permit  his  approach ;  and  he  resolved  to  begin  his 
operations  at  Chiozza,  off  which  port  he  anchored  on  the 
6th  of  August.  Carrara  had  received  notice  of  his  design ; 
and,  anxious  to  effect  a  junction  with  his  allies,  he  collected 
at  Padua  one  hundred  light  barks  (ganzaruoli),  with  which 
he  intended  to  convey  his  troops  down  the  Fiume  Vecchio 
of  the  Brenta.  Till"  he  reached  Castel  Caro,  his  progress 
was  unimpeded  ;  but  there  the  Venetians  had  sunk  a  large 
vessel,  laden  with  stones  and  ballast,  so  as  effectually  to 

*  Se  egli  la  pigliava,  la  d'we.tse  saccheg glare,  e  far  prigioni  quanti 
gent  duo  mini  puteva,  e  tutti  maridargli  a  aenova,  salvo,  se  per  to  Signure 
di  hadova  non.  ci  fosse  fatto  ultra  deliberazione,  al  cui  volere  ordinarono 
si  dovesse  obedire,  se  hen!  havesse  ordinato,  che  fossero  tutti  decolUUi  i» 
m<n'<'.— Chinazzo,  722. 


choke  the  stream.     With  incredible  labour,  in  the  course 
of  a  single  night  Carrara  dug  a  fresh  channel,  thirty  paces 
■        wide  and  half  a  mile  in  length,  into  which  he  turned  the 
/  obstructed  waters  ;  and  towing  his  barges  round  the  sunken 

'  ship,  he  placed  them  at  the  disposal  of  Doria,  two  days  after 

that  admiral  had  artived  at  Chiozza,  himself  remaining  on 
^  terra  fir  ma  to  direct  other  military  operations.  The  pos- 
session of  Chiozza  was  of  the  uttermost  importance  to  both 
the  contending  parties,  on  account  of  its  proximity  to 
Venice,  of  the  large  revenue  derived  from  its  salt-works, 
and  of  its  facility  of  communication  with  Lombardy.  It 
was  the  key  of  the  Lagunc  ;  and  if  its  walls  were  once 
lost  to  its  present  masters,  it  seemed  that  but  a  single  step 
remained  between  the  invaders  and  Venice.  It  is  no  won- 
der, therefore,  that  it  was  hotly  contested. 

The  works  framed  for  the  defence  of  its  port  were  now 
attacked  on  both  sides ;  from  the  Adriatic  by  the  Genoese, 
from  the  Lagune  by  the  Paduans  ;  and  their  joint  force 
amounted  to  24,000  men.  The  town,  like  Venice,  is  for 
the  most  part  surrounded  by  shallows  and  tide-creeks.  Its 
distance  from  the  entrance  of  its  port  is  about  a  mile ;  and 
before  Chiozza  itself  could  be  invested,  it  was  necessary 
that  this  approach  should  be  gained.  A  day  was  sufficient 
for  the  attack  and  capture  of  the  sandone  moored  in  its 
channel.  This  was  immediately  burnt,  and  the  hostile 
_.  fleet  moved  up  in  front  of  the  town.  The  period  between 
M  the  10th  and  the  16th  was  employed  in  murderous  assaults, 
in  which  little  appears  to  have  been  gained  except  the  cap- 
ture of  the  tete  de  pont  connecting  the  isle  of  Brondolo 
±.  with  Chiozza.  The  bridge  itself  was  contested  on  the 
m  morning  of  the  16th  ;  and  at  first  to  the  advantage  of  the 
•  :  besieged.  At  the  moment,  however,  in  which  the  assailants 
were  giving  way,  a  vessel  charged  with  combustibles  was 
driven  against  the  piers.  The  Venetians,  partly  terrified 
by  the  cry  which  rapidly  circulated  that  the  bridge  was  in 
flames  and  all  retreat  cut  off, — partly  stupified  by  the  smoke 
which  arose  from  the  fireship,  hastily  withdrew  within  the 
walls,  to  which  the  enemy  pursued  closely,  and  entered 
with  them  pile-mile.  Defence  was  no  longer  availing  to 
the  panic-stricken  garrison  ;  and  wherever  it  was  attempted 
they  were  overpowered  by  superior  numbers.  Not  less 
than  6000  Venetians  perished  during  this  short  siege  ;  and 


228 


TERROR  IN  VENICE. 


3500  prisoners  were  taken  after  the  storm.  Doria  obeyed 
the  injunctions  of  his  masters  to  the  letter ;  for  when  Car- 
rara, thirsting  for  vengeance,  offered  to  purchase  two  of  the 
noble  prisoners  who  had  fallen  into  the  hands  of  the 
Genoese,  the  price  of  blood  was  accepted,  and  they  were 
instantly  put  to  the  sword. 

Though  won  chiefly  by  the  Genoese,  the  town,  according 
to  the  stipulations  of  their  treaty  of  alliance,  was  surren- 
dered to  Carrara.  He  hastened  to  survey  his  new  conquest ; 
and  the  enthusiasm  with  which  he  was  received,  is  pictu- 
resquely described  by  the  chronicler.  He  was  carried  along 
the  lines  on  the  shoulders  of  the  soldiery,  whose  joy  vented 
itself  in  exclamations  which,  at  least  to  modern  cars,  savour 
of  profaneness ;  and  he  was  hailed  with  loud  shouts  of 
"  Ca/TO,'  Carrol  Osamia  !*    Bcncdictus  qui  venit .'" 

Chiozza  was  stormed  at  sunset ;  by  midnight,  its  fall 
was  known  in  Venice ;  and  the  consternation  which  this 
announcement  excited  was  scarcely  less  than  if  the  capital 
itself  had  been  lost.  Groups  of  terrified  women  hurried 
through  the  streets,  manifesting  their  fear  and  sorrow  by 
shrill  cries  and  vehement  gestures.  The  men,  who  had 
been  called  to  arms  by  a  signal  of  alarm  rung  from  the  bell- 
tower  of  St.  Mark,  were  silent  and  d^yected ;  or,  if  they 
spoke,  it  was  in  a  few  broken  words  which  implied  despair 
of  their  country.  The  churches  were  thronged  by  trem- 
bUng  crowds,  who  pressed  to  the  confessional ;  and  after 
obtaining  absolution,  continued  to  implore  participation  in 
the  Eucharist,  as  if  it  were  the  viaticum  for  their  last 
nioments.f  Every  instant  it  was  expected  that  the  victo- 
rious enemy  would  pursue  his  success  ;  and  that  the  ban- 
ners of  Carrara,  now  floating  on  Cbiozza,  would  surmount 
the  ducal  palace.  If,  indeed,  the  Genoese  had  listened  to 
the  counsel  of  the  Lord  of  Padua,  the  event  might  probably 
have  been  fatal  to  Venice.  Carrara  urged  his  allies  to 
profit  by  the  impression  of  terror  which  they  had  doubtless 
created,  and,  without  the  pause  of  an  hour,  to  cross  the 
Lagune  ;  but  Doria  was  far  less  ardent.  He  wished  to 
establish  himself  securely  in  the  conquest  already  won, 

*  Chinazzo,  727.  The  armorial  bearing  of  the  Carrara  family  was  un 
Carro  rosso ;  probal)ly  a  cnrreau  or  tiuarrel.  See  a  note  in  Syine's  For- 
tunes of  P'rancesco  da  Carrara,/ro7n  Gataro,  p.  xli. 

t  P.  Jusiiniani,  p.  150. 


CONTARINI  ATTEMPTS  NEGOTIATION. 


'229 


before  he  risked  further  operations  ;  and  he  contended  that 
Venice  must  fall,  even  without  another  blow.  By  sea  she 
was  blockaded,  her  supplies  were  intercepted,  her  few 
remaining  galleys  had  no  means  of  extrication,  the  neigh- 
bouring coasts  were  covered  with  her  enemies,  she  was 
without  allies,  without  stores,  and  all  that  was  left  to  her 
were  a  few  narrow  strips  of  barren  sand.  Prudence,  he 
said,  forbade  the  encounter  of  even  a  slight  hazard,  in  order 
to  accelerate,  by  a  few  days,  that  triumph  which  must  be 
theirs  ere  long  spontaneously. 

The  cry  of  the  populace  in  St.  Mark's,  during  this  inter- 
val, was  raised  for  peace,  and  they  demanded  an  immediate 
negotiation.  The  Doge  Contarini  seems  to  have  preserved 
a  firmness  and  presence  of  mind  wanting  to  his  fellow-citi- 
zens ;  but  at  the  same  time  he  clearly  perceived  the  fearful 
strait  to  which  he  was  reduced,  and  he  wisely  resolved  to 
attempt  a  pacific  overture.  Safe  conduct  was  obtained  for 
messengers  who  bore  a  despatch,  not  couched  in  that 
haughty  tone  wherein,  of  old,  the  republic  was  wont  to 
dictate  to  her  vassal ;  but  exhibiting,  in  its  style  and  super- 
scription, an  acknowledgment  that  her  superiority  was  at 
an  end.  Carrara  was  no  longer  addressed  as  simply  noblcy 
but  by  the  far  more  sounding  and  pompous  title  of  powerful 
and  magnificent  lord ;  and  the  doge,  who  hitherto,  according 
to  the  usage  of  sovereign  princes,  had  been  accustomed  to 
commence  with  his  signature,  now  added  it  at  the  foot  of 
his  missive.  But  the  apprehensions  of  the  writer  were  be- 
trayed by  far  more  decisive  tokens  than  any  trifling  altera- 
tions of  form.  A  blank  sheet  of  paper  was  presented  to 
the  Lord  of  Padua,  who  was  besought  to  inscribe  it  with 
such  terms  as  he  thought  fitting ;  and  to  these,  before  they 
were  seen,  Contarini  promised  submission  ;  with  the  sole 
proviso  that  Venice  should  still  remain  an  independent  state. 
Such  a  proposal  was  not  to  be  rejected  hastily,  and  Carrara 
hesitated,  and  probably  would  have  consented  ;  but  Doria 
coveted  a  far  deeper  vengeance,  and  fearful  that  the  ancient 
rival  of  his  country  might  elude  his  grasp  if  the  hold  were 
relaxed  but  for  an  instant,  he  anticipated  the  answer  of  his 
ally,  and  replied  for  both.  The  ambassadors,  seeking  to 
propitiate  him,  had  brought  with  them  some  Genoese  pris- 
oners, ransomless.  "  Take  back  your  captives,"  were  his 
words,  as  he  refused  the  proffer.     "  Ere  many  hours,  I  shall 

Vol.  L— U 


230 


POPULAR  AGITATION. 


deliver  both  them  and  all  their  comrades.  By  God  above, 
ye  signers  of  Venice,  you  must  expect  no  peace  either  from 
the  Lord  of  Padua  or  from  our  republic,  till  we  ourselves 
have  bridled  the  horses  of  your  St.  Mark.  Place  but  the 
reins  once  in  our  hands,  and  we  shall  know  how  to  keep 
them  quiet  for  the  future."* 

This  reply,  forbidding  every  hope  of  accommodation,  was 
not  the  only  evil  tidings  which  the  envoys  brought  with 
them  on  their  return.  AH  the  posts  on  the  continental  bor- 
ders of  the  Lagune  had  surrendered  ;  the  garrison  of  Mala- 
mocco,  after  destroying  its  works,  had  been  compelled  to  fall 
back  on  Lido  ;  so  that  part  of  the  very  island  which  defended 
the  port  of  Venice  was  now  in  possession  of  the  enemy.  A 
single  outpost  in  the  middle  of  the  salt-works  (the  CastcUa 
delle  Saline)  still  maintained  itself;  and  its  honourable 
resistance  was  supported  till  the  close  of  the  war.  With 
this  exception,  the  territory  of  the  Dogailo  was  reduced  to 
little  more  than  the  space  covered  by  the  houses  of  the 
capital ;  and  so  closely  had  the  invaders  pressed  even  upon 
these,  that  the  bell  of  the  great  Campanile  was  no  longer 
employed  to  peal  its  customary  notes,  lest  the  operations 
which  it  directed  should  be  revealed  to  the  vigilance  of  the 
besiegers. 

The  construction  of  a  squadron  which  might  delay  the 
enemy^s  approach  presented  the  only  slender  hope  of  exist- 
ence which  the  Venetians  still  dared  to  encourage.  Every 
hand,  therefore,  was  summoned  to  the  arsenal ;  and  there, 
the  scene  itself,  the  works  on  which  they  were  employed, 
the  end  to  which  their  labours  were  addressed,  each  asso- 
ciation connected  with  naval  objects,  forcibly  recalled  to 
memory  the  great  commander  under  whom  they  had  so  often 
fought  and  conquered.  The  image  of  Pisani  was  present 
to  every  heart ;  his  name  burst  at  once  from  every  tongue. 
The  artisans,  the  burghers,  the  merchants,  the  soldiers,  the 
mariners,  rushed,  as  it  were,  with  a  single  impulse  to  the 
palace  gates  ;  and  thronging  round  them  with  impetuosity, 
demanded  the  release  of  their  admiral.  It  was  no  fit  sea- 
son for  the  government  to  contest  a  petition  thus  urgently 
pressed ;  and  to  their  fears   of  popular  disaffection  might 

*  The  whole  of  this  speech  is  assigned  by  Chinazzo,  as  we  have  given 
it,  to  Uoria.  Daru,  contrary  both  to  authorities  and  probabilities,  ha* 
divided  it  between  the  Genoese  admii'al  and  Carrara. 


MHliMMHh^. 


RELEASE  OF  PISANI. 


231 


now  be  added  a  belief  that  no  other  citizen  possessed  quali- 
aes  so  fully  applicable  to  the  particular  exigency  by  which 
they  were  required.     The    signory,  accordingly,  ^^ 

notified  to  Pisani  that  he  was  free,  and  that  on 
the  following  morning  he  might  resume  his  seat  in  the  great 
council.  Instead  of  throwing  himself  rashly  into  the  arms 
of  his  partisans,  and  draining  the  full  cup  of  popular  favour 
which  was  proffered  to  his  lips,  Pisani  remained  that  night 
in  his  cell.  He  passed  its  hours  in  religious  exercises  with 
a  priest,  in  penitence  and  in  confession.  On  the  morrow,  he 
first  attended  mass  and  communicated,  as  a  testimony  of 
freedom  from  all  resentraent ;  and  he  then  presented  him- 
self in  the  council-chamber  with  looks  bearing  no  trace 
which  implied  remembrance  of  his  wrongs.  He  listened 
with  placid  dignity  to  the  ambiguous  haraiiguc  in  which 
Contarini  neither  impugned  the  justice  of  the  republic  nor 
denied  the  innocence  of  the  prisoner  whom  she  now  released 
from  his  bonds  ;  and  in  his  reply,  renouncing  every  private 
feeling,  he  devoted  himself  to  the  service  which  his  country 
required  at  his  hands.  "  Would  to  heaven  !"  were  his  burn- 
ing words  in  conclusion,  "  that  I  could  bear  to  the  holy  task 
to  which  you  invite  me,  and  which  I  embrace  with  my  whole 
soul  and  spirit,  a  vigour  and  an  intellect  proportioned  to  my 
desires  and  affections  !  Thosc^  at  least,  are  not  likely  to  be 
wanting  to  Venice."  With  equal  modesty  he  declined  the 
loud  testimonies  of  applause  which  were  lavished  on  him  by 
the  assembled  crowd,  as  he  descended  into  the  piazza :  and 
turning  to  some  who  shouted  "  Pisani^  viva  Pisani .'"  "  Stop, 
stop,  my  friends,"  he  said,  gently  reproving  them,  "  the  cry 
of  a  true  Venetian  is  Viva  San  Marco  /"* 

Even  yet,  however,  the  jealous  spirit  of  the  signory  had  but 
half  atoned  for  its  former  injustice.  Pisani  was  appointed  to 
a  command ;  but  by  no  means  invested  with  the  same  powers 
which  he  possessed  before  his  disgrace ;  only  the  troops 
which  were  encamped  at  Lido  were  placed  under  his  orders, 
and  even  over  these  he  held  but  divided  authority — his 
coadjutor  being  a  Veronese  captain,  Giacomo  de'  Caballi, 
to  whom  the   generalship  had   been  previously  assigned. 

*  These  words  are  attributed  by  Sanuto  to  Pisani  while  he  is  yet  in 
prison  ;  and  Daru  on  that  account  has  altogether  disbelieved  that  they 
were  employed.  We  have  related  them  according  to  SabeiUco's  repre- 
sentation, under  which  all  improbability  disappears. 


•t 


I 

A 


332 


GREAT  EXERTIONS  OF  PISANI. 


The  citizens  were  ignorant  of  this  narrow  arrangement  of 
the  senate ;  and  believing  that  Pisani  was  their  admiral, 
the  poorer  classes  thronged  to  enrol  themselves  under  his 
command  as  mariners,  the  rich  to  tender  their  estates  for 
the  public  service,  and  to  pour  into  his  hands  the  cost  of 
whole  galleys.  Without  a  murmur,  or  even  an  implication 
that  his  merits  were  undervalued,  he  meekly  represented 
that  he  was  not  qualified  to  receive  their  tenders  ;  and  direct- 
ing the  patriotic  citizens  to  the  senators,  as  the  proper  offi- 
cers to  whom  they  should  apply,  he  addressed  himself  to 
the  immediate  duties  of  his  post,  and  the  inspection  of  the 
fortifications.  Another  burst  of  popular  feeling  succeeded, 
and  it  was  met,  like  the  first,  by  similar  concession  ;  Pisani 
was  restored  to  all  his  former  honours,  and  once  again  named 
admiral. 

His  first  care  was  to  strengthen  the  lines  at  Lido,  where 
a  wall  was  raised  beyond  the  fosse,  and  flanked  by  two 
towers.  Pisani  himself  laid  the  first  stone,  and  four  days 
sufficed  for  the  entire  erection.  The  curtain  by  which  the 
towers  were  united  was  completed  in  fifteen  more,  by  the 
unwearied  labours  of  every  class  of  citizens  ;  and  Sabellico 
points  to  the  remains  of  this  great  work,  which  existed  at 
the  time  in  which  he  wrote  his  history,  on  the  southern 
shore  of  the  port.  But  it  was  no  less  necessary  to  protect 
the  approaches  from  the  Lagune  than  from  the  Adriatic ; 
for,  however  tortuous  and  difficult  might  be  the  navigation 
of  those  inner  channels,  an  enemy  in  possession  of  Chiozza 
would  certainly  attempt,  would  probably  accomplish  it  in  the 
end.  Venice,  from  its  very  site  and  construction,  would 
not  admit  of  regular  fortification  ;  all,  therefore,  that  could 
be  done  was  to  sink  cocche  in  different  stations,  which  might 
serve  as  advanced  batteries,  and  to  organize  a  flotilla  of 
boats,  which  should  patrol  day  and  night  without  interrup- 
tion, to  prevent  surprise.  Meantime,  the  works  in  the 
arsenal  proceeded  rapidly  ;  and  in  order  to  acquaint  the  un- 
skilled mechanics  with  the  service  for  which  they  had  volun- 
teered, the  canal  of  Giudecca*  (Ztiecca,  as  it  is  pronounced) 
was  set  apart  for  their  drill.  Its  entrance  was  guarded  by  a 
strong  boom  and  chain  ;  and  within  it  the  doge  and  Pisani 

*  Oriffinally  called  Spinalonga ;  it  received  its  present  name  when  the 
Jeujs  obtained  i)ermission  to  m  in  its  neiglibourbood. 


/ 


i 


SECOND  FRUITLESS  NEGOTIATION. 


233 


daily  superintended  the  manoeuvres  and  encouraged  the 
ardour  of  their  embryo  mariners.  So  low  had  her  fortunes 
sunk,  so  shorn  was  Venice  of  her  former  undisputed  naval 
pre-eminence,  that  the  queen  of  the  Adriatic,  who  once 
gave  maritime  law  almost  to  the  whole  world,  now  cen- 
tred her  hopes  of  existence  on  a  handful  of  landsmen, 
practising  within  the  narrow  bounds  of  a  street  of  her 
own  city. 

It  is  not  to  be  supposed  that  the  Genoese  during  these 
transactions  remained  wholly  idle.  Eight  days  after  the 
storm  of  Chiozza,  a  squadron  reconnoitred  the  port  of  Lido ; 
and  on  the  1st  of  September,  a  yet  larger  force  disem- 
barked some  troops  on  San  Erasmo  ;  so  that  each  island 
which  flanked  the  harbour  was  partly  in  possession  of  the 
enemy ;  but  on  the  following  day,  as  the  fleet  neared  the 
«trait,  it  was  received  with  so  warm  a  fire  from  the  batte- 
ries, that  it  hastily  withdrew.  Scarcely  an  hour  passed 
without  some  petty  engagement  between  the  light  barks 
which  traversed  the  Lagune^  or  skirmishes  between  the 
outposts  on  the  aggere.  Even  if  the  fortune  of  these  con- 
tests was  for  the  most  part  equal,  the  moral  eflect  was 
clecidedly  advantageous  to  the  Venetians  ;  and  those  who 
were,  not  many  days  since,  wholly  prostrate  in  despair, 
now  occasionally  permitted  themselves  to  hope  that  deliv- 
erance might  still  be  in  reserve.  A  second  fruitless  nego- 
tiation tended  not  a  little  to  increase  that  spirit  of  resist- 
ance which  is  always  generated  by  a  sense  of  oppression. 
Prince  Charles  of  Durazzo,  nephew  of  the  King  of  Hungary, 
had  entered  the  Trevisano  with  ten  thousand  men,  and  the 
propositions  which  he  offered  to  the  doge  evinced  that  the 
extinction  of  Venice,  as  an  independent  power,  was  the 
real  object  of  the  league  against  her.  Peace,  it  was  said, 
might  be  obtained,  if  the  republic  would  consent  to  defray 
the  expenses  of  the  war,  which  were  estimated  at  five 
hundred  thousand  ducats.  As  a  gage  for  this  payment, 
she  must  deposite  in  the  hands  of  the  allies  the  jewelry  of 
St.  Mark  and  the  ducal  crown.  An  annual  tribute  of  fifty 
thousand  ducats  was  to  be  tendered  to  the  King  of  Hun- 
gary, without  whose  confirmation  and  investiture  no  future 
doge  was  to  be  considered  as  duly  elected  ;  and  as  a  mark 
of  vassalage,  on  all  festivals  and  days  of  rejoicing,  the  Hun- 
garian standard  wa«  to  be  displayed  jointly  with  that  of 

U2 


^ 


t-ltaaaWdfaaa  -ij.-.j 


234 


SUCCESS  AT  MONTALBANO. 


•I 


1 


Venice  on  the  Piazza  di  San  Marco,     Some  obscurity 
hangs  over  the  discussion  of  these  terms,  and  it  has  been 
said,  but  it  is  scarely  credible,  that  they  were  at  first  ac- 
cepted ;  but  the  statement  is  far  more  probable  which  affirms 
that  an  annual  tribute  of  one  hundred  thousand  ducats  was 
offered  as  a  commutation  for  the  more  grinding  conditions. 
There  are  yet  other  writers  who  maintain  that  the  doge 
once  contemplated  the  entire  abandonment  of  the  Lagune^ 
and  the  transfer  of  his  government  to  Candia.     By  those 
who  have  witnessed  a  similar  emigration  in  modem  times, 
terminating  in  the  establishment  of  a  new  and  far  greater 
dominion  than  that  which  was  surrendered,  such  a  state- 
ment will  not  be  hastily  rejected.     But  the  case  of  Venice 
and  that  of  Portugal  in  our  own  days  are  widely  different. 
The  latter  was  absolutely  won  by  the  invaders,  and  if  the 
Braganzas  had  remained,  they  must  have  sacrificed  them- 
selves to  hopeless  captivity,  without  a  chance  of  benefit  to 
their  country.     Contarini,  on  the  other  hand,  still  possessed 
his  hearths  and  altars  inviolate,  though  fearfully  perilled. 
To  quit  them  was  to  ensure  their  destruction  ;  and  his  flight, 
though  attended  with  the  certainty  of  shame  and  dishonour, 
would  not  have  been  accompanied  by  an  equal  certainty  of 
personal  safety.     Whatever  was  the  secret  history  of  this 
negotiation,   all   treaty  was    ultimately   broken   off.     The 
Hungarians  found  a  more  alluring  object  in  the  conquest 
of  Naples  ;  and  during  the  short  period  they  continued  to 
occupy  the  Trevisano,  their  operations  were  languid  and 
ineffective. 

An  unexpected  success,  in  an  enterprise  upon  a  larger 
scale  than  those  to  which  they  were  now  ordinarily  accus- 
tomed, materially  increased  the  ardour  which  had  been 
kindled  among  the  Venetians.  Fifly  of  their  boats  pene- 
trated by  night  as  far  as  Montalbano,  a  station  on  the 
Brenta  but  a  few  miles  above  Chiozza.  A  galley  and  two 
smaller  vessels  lay  there  at  anchor,  and  these  the  assailants 
surprised,  boarded,  and  mastered.  The  ebbing  tide  pre- 
vented them  from  removing  the  galley,  but  it  was  fired  and 
burnt  to  the  water's  edge,  and  the  lesser  prizes,  with  their 
commandant  and  a  hundred  and  fifty  prisoners,  were  borne  in 
triumph  to  Venice.  On  their  arrival,  the  city  was  intoxi- 
cated with  joy  ;  and  in  these  first  fruits  of  victory  were 
descried  the  pledges  of  a  full  and  swollen  harvest.    Every 


^ 


PATRIOTISM  OF  THE  VENETIAN  CITIZENS.     235 

voice  demanded  battle,  and  already  in  the  sanguine  antici- 
pation of  the  enthusiastic  populace,  to  confront  and  to  con- 
quer the  enemy  appeared  but  one. 

The  force,  indeed,  of  which  the  republic  was  now  mis- 
tress  might   promise,    at   least,  an   even-handed   contest. 
Never  in  the  whole  history  of  the  world  had  been  exhibited 
more  splendid  instances  of  individual  sacrifice  and  self-de- 
votion, than  those  made  by  the  patriot  Venetians.     Where 
age  or  infirmity  rendered  personal  service  impossible,  entire 
fortunes  were  surrendered  to  the  state  ;  vast  debts  were  re- 
mitted by  creditors  ;  plate,  jewels,  and  treasure  were  heaped 
into  the  public  coffers  ;  the  doge  mortgaged  his  revenues  ;  the 
ecclesiastics  bore   arms.     One  holy  band  alone  was  found 
wanting  to  its  country,  and  the  Minorites  excused  them- 
selves.    It  was  written,  they  said,  in  their  statutes,  that  no 
one  of  their  brotherhood,  whatever  might  be  the  occasion, 
should  handle  any  weapon  of  offence.     Their   cowardly 
hypocrisy  received  its  deserts,  and  they  were  banished  from 
the  Dogado.*     Among  the  traders,  we  hear  of  a  furrier 
who  undertook  the  maintenance  of  one  thousand  armed 
men  ;  of  an  apothecary  who  equipped  a  galley  ;  of  plain 
mechanics  and   simple  artisans  who  associated  to  defray 
similar  expenses.     One,    perhaps,   of  the  most  touching 
offers  which  this  great  crisis  called  forth  was  that  made  by 
Matteo  Faseolo,  a   townsman  of  Chiozza,  whom  its    loss 
had  reduced    from  opulence  to  beggary.     Carrying  with 
him  his  two  sons,  he  presented  them  to  the  magistrates. 
**If  my  estate,"  he  said,  "were  such  as  I  once  possessed, 
all  of  it  should  be  contributed  to  the  public  exigencies  ;  but 
life  is  now  the  only  property  which  is  left  to  me  and  to 
these.     Dispose  of  it  as  you  think  best.     Employ  us  either 
by  land  or  sea,  and   gladden  us   by  a  consciousness  that 
what  little  we  still  retain  is  devoted  to  our  country."! 

These  demonstrations  of  fidelity  and  affection  were  cor- 
dially and  gratefully  received  by  the  government.  A  decree 
of  the  grand  council  proclaimed  that,  immediately  after  the 
conclusion  of  a  peace,  5000  ducats  of  gold  should  be  dis- 
tributed in  yearly  pensions  among  the  poorer  citizens,  in 
proportion  to  their  merits  ;  and  that  every  foreigner  who 


<«! 


*8anato,703. 


t  SabeUioo,  dec.  y.  lib.  6. 


L   'tjtfr.-t^'AJ' 


A£a;«»o.-j^'fc..tfsa^..» 


jgj«te&tf-.aa.-^j»ia.fMWgatatfasfra%^,i 


>rf-^^fc^^/^^■a.l■    tf'^Ji 


!^ 


236 


REVIVING  HOPES  OF  VENICE. 


had  rendered  good  service  to  the  state  should  be  natu- 
ralized and  receive  the  privileges  of  citizenship.  A  yet  more 
alluring  offer  was  freely  propounded  to  all  classes.  It  was 
announced  that  at  the  termination  of  the  v<rar  the  XL. 
should  be  bound  under  a  heavy  penalty  to  convoke  the  pre- 
gadi,  and  in  that  assembly  each  of  its  members  should  be 
authorized  to  name  some  one  citizen,  whom  he  deemed 
worthy  of  admission  to  nobility.  The  deserts  of  the  seve- 
ral candidates  were  to  be  discussed  at  whatever  length 
their  proposers  might  think  fit ;  and  the  thirty  who  should 
obtain  a  majority  of  suffrages,  were  to  be  registered,  both 
for  themselves  and  their  posterity,  as  members  of  the  grand 
council,  and  to  participate  in  all  its  rights,  privileges,  and 
immunities  as  entirely  as  any  original  noble.  No  words 
could  exceed  in  strength  and  solemnity  those  which  were 
employed  to  confirm  these  provisions.  More  than  once  it 
was  repeated  that  every  decree  which  might  repeal  them 
should  be  null ;  and  in  addition,  it  was  declared  that  any 
one  who  proposed  such  a  repeal  should  be  for  ever  excluded, 
both  himself  and  his  descendants,  from  every  magistracy, 
without  possibility  of  grace  or  remission ;  and  that  whoever 
ventured  to  suggest  indulgence  to  the  offenders  should  incur 
similar  penalties. 

Such  was  the  zeal  excited  by  these  liberal  promises  that 
two  days  were  sufficient  to  complete  the  crews  of  four-and- 
thirty  galleys,  already  equipped  in  the  arsenal.  Con- 
tarini,  disregarding  the  burden  of  seventy-two  winters,  an- 
nounced that,  ere  long,  he  would  lead  this  armament  in 
person  against  the  enemy  ;  and  his  resolution  appears  to 
have  been  delayed  only  from  the  hope  of  obtaining  tidings 
of  Carlo  Zeno  and  his  fleet.  That  gallant  and  adventu- 
rous captain  had  been  detached  to  the  Levant,  before  the  dis- 
astrous battle  of  Pola.  Of  his  subsequent  proceedings 
nothing  hitherto  was  known  in  Venice  ;  but  no  exertion 
had  been  spared  to  acquaint  him  first  with  the  perils,  now 
with  the  hopes,  of  his  country  ;  and  it  was  daily  and  anx- 
iously expected  that  the  squadron  under  his  command 
might  return  in  time  to  afford  great  additional  strength  to 
the  proposed  expedition.  The  autumn,  therefore,  was 
passed  in  a  series  of  skirmishes  and  manceuvres  which  habit- 
uated the  raw  seamen  to  their  new  element,  improved  their 
discipline,  stimulated  their  courage,  and  amused  them  under 


ENTERPRISE  OF  PISANI. 


237 


the  necessary  delay.     It  was  not  without  surprise  and  anx- 
iety, that  the  Genoese  perceived  the  creation  of  this  new 
fleet  in  the  blockaded  capital  which  they  had  once  securely 
deemed  their   own.     Straitened   for  provisions,  they  had 
been  compelled  to  despatch  a  large  force  to  procure  supplies 
from  the  Istrian  coast ;  in  numerous  little  rencounters  with 
the  light  flotilla  in  the  Lagune,  they  had,  for  the  most  part, 
been  worsted  ;  a  convoy  from  Padua  had  been  intercepted ; 
Cavalli,  the  Veronese  general,  had  forced  them  to  abandon 
Malamocco  ;  Poveglia  had  been  retaken  in  like  manner ; 
and  gradually  contracting  their  outposts,  they  nar- 
rowed the  circuit  of  their  operations,  and  contented    ^^^' 
themselves  by  strengthening  the  fortifications  of  Chiozza. 
Nor  were  they  long  without  perceiving  the  full  necessity 
of  such  precaution.     Though   the   brave  garrison  of  the 
little  fort  in  the  Saline  still  defied  their  summons,  it  was 
daily  subjected  to  the  observation,  and  often  to  the  attacks, 
of  three  galleys  which  cruised  around  it.     Pisani  armed  his 
flotilla  for  its  relief,  and  three  hundred  boats  and  fifty  gan- 
zarioli  were  concealed  among  the  reeds  and  shallows  ot  the 
neighbouring  banks.     From  some   want  of  caution,  this 
ambuscade  was  prematurely  detected,   and   the  Genoese 
hastily  plied  their  oars  in  flight.     Pisani,  therefore,  finding 
them  too  distant  for  pursuit,  boldly  directed  his  course  at 
once  upon  Chiozza  itself,  through  the  shallows  which  ad- 
mitted the  light  draught  of  his  flotilla.     Having  reached  the 
town,  he  stormed  the  suburb,  and  put  the  detachment  by 
which   it    was   defended   to    the   sword.     Meantime,   the 
galleys  which,  from  their  greater  burden,  had  been  com- 
pelled to  make  a  longer  circuit  through  the  deep  waters, 
returned  off  the  port ;  and   the  Venetians,  pressed  on  all 
sides,  both  from  the  town  and  from  the  sea,  were  compelled 
to  retreat,  not  without   loss.     Six  of  their  vessels  were 
captured,  and  Gradenigo,  a  son-in-law  of  the  doge,  was 
killed.     The  Genoese  might  boast  that  they  had  repulsed 
their  assailants  ;  but  how  great  must  have  been  the  joy  of 
the  Venetians,  even  under  their  partial  want  of  success,  on 
finding  that  they  had  once  more  gained  the  power  of  assum- 
ing the  offensive  ! 

As  winter  advanced,  the  main  body  of  the  Genoese  fleet 
moved  up  the  harbour,  in  which  it  was  partly  dismantled, 
both  for  repair  and  for  the  refreshment  of  the  crews ;  and 


A 


238 


EMBARKATION  OF  CONTARINI. 


I 


here  it  was  soon  afterward  joined  by  the  squadron  which 
returned  from  Istria.    Three  galleys  cruising  at  the  entrance 
of  the  port  were  considered  amply  sufficient  for  its  defence  ; 
for  although  the  growing  force  of  the  Venetians  excited 
some  inquietude,  little  anticipation  could  be  entertained  of 
the  daring  enterprise  which  they  were  about  to  undertake. 
Contarini,  if  acting  solely  on  his  own  judgment,  would  still 
have  continued  to  await  the  return  of  Carlo  Zeno ;  but  he 
was  urged  on  both  by  the  enthusiasm  of  the  populace  and 
by  the  pressure  of  scarcity  in  the  capital,  which  would  be 
relieved  by  the  absence  of  that  large  portion  of  her  inhabit- 
ants about  to  accompany  his  fleet,  the  supplies  of  which 
meantime  might  be  procured  from  the  neighbouring  coasts. 
Accordingly,  on  the  23d  of  December,  the  doge,  having 
celebrated  high  mass  at  St.  Mark's,  proceeded  in  great  pomp 
to  the  harbour.     Martial  music  enlivened  the  procession ; 
but  the  trumpets  were  sometimes  overpowered  by  the  exult- 
ing shouts  of  the  citizens.     Before  Contarini  was  displayed 
the  great  banner  of  the  republic ;  that  banner  which  the 
seamen  were  reminded  had  been  unfurled  at  the  memorable 
discomfiture   of  Barbarossa;    and  the  doge,   attended  by 
numerous  senators,  embarked  at  evening.     His  fleet  con- 
sisted of  thirty-four  galleys,  sixty  armed  barks,  and  several 
hundred  boats,  conveying  a  large  military  force ;  and  the 
van,  of  fourteen  galleys,  under  Pisani,  towed  with  it  two 
vast  hulks  which  were  essential  to  his  main  design.     The 
night  was  more  than  usually  serene  and  tranquil,  and,  at 
the  first  daybreak  of  the  morning  of  the  24th,  on  the  clear- 
ing away  of  a  mist,  the  Genoese  perceived,  to  their  alarm 
and  astonishment,  that  the  entrance  of  the  strait  of  Chiozza 
was  beset  by  this  formidable  armament.     Feeling  secure 
that  no  movement  of  importance  would  be  attempted  before 
the  arrival  of  Zeno,  the  galleys  appointed  to  observe  the 
mouth  of  the  port  appear  to  have  been  remiss  in  their  duty 
and  absent  from  their  post.     Dearly  was  this  negligence 
atoned  for  in  the  end. 

The  plan  which  Pisani  meditated  was  conceived  in  a 
masterly  spirit.  Both  in  numbers  and  in  equipment,  his 
enemy  was  greatly  his  superior ;  and  his  half-trained  levies 
were  but  ill-matched  against  the  Genoese  veterans.  It  was 
his  obvious  policy,  therefore,  to  avoid  a  battle ;  but  the  im- 
prudence of  his  adversaries  had  afforded  him  an  opportunity 


BLOCKADE  OF  THE  STRAIT  OF  CHIOZZA.     239 

of  triumph,  if  by  more  slow,  yet  by  far  more  certain  means ; 
and  such  was  their  present  position  that,  by  promptitude, 
he  might  hope  to  enclose  them  within  toils  from  which 
there  was  little  chance  of  extrication.     Chiozza,  it  will  be 
remembered,  standing,  like  Venice,  on  a  group  of  small 
islands  surrounded  by  Lagune,  and  intersected  by  canals, 
is  approached  from  the  Adriatic  by  two  straits;  that  which 
bears  its  own  name  and  that  of  Brondolo.     No  other  issue 
can  be  obtained  but  by  ascending  the  Lagune  and  attempt- 
ing to  penetrate  the  more  distant  ports  of  Malamocco,  Lido, 
or  San  Erasmo.     If,  therefore,  the  channels  of  Brondolo, 
Chiozza,  and  the  canal  leading  to  Venice  were  blockaded, 
escape  would  be  hopeless.    Pisani  determined  to  close  these 
entrances  by  sinking  vessels  across  them,  and  then  patiently 
to  await,  without  the  Laguncy  the  surrender  which  time 
must  render  inevitable. 

The  strait  of  Chiozza  was  the  first  in  which  he  com- 
menced his  operations  ;  for  one  shore  which  flanked  it,  that 
of  Pelestrina,  was  already  in  his  possession.     To  obtain 
similar  footing  on  the  opposite  bank  of  Brondolo,  he  threw 
a  body  of  five  thousand  men  upon  that  island ;  but  they 
were  quickly  overpowered  by  a  superior  force,  and  beaten 
back  to  their  ships  with  great  slaughter.     Sufficient  time, 
however,  had  been  gained  during  this  attempt  to  tow  the 
two  cocche  with  which  he  was  provided  into  the  channel ; 
but  the  ebb  of  the  tide  did  not  permit  their  support  by  the 
remainder  of  the  fleet,  and  they  were  attacked  at  once  both 
from  sea  and  land,  burnt  to  the  water's  edge,  and  sunk. 
The  Venetian  sailors  lamented  this  calamity;  but  Pisani 
watched,  with  silent  joy,  the  progress  of  the  flames,  and  the 
error  which  facilitated  his  design.     If  the  Genoese  had 
occupied  and  maintained  these  cocche^  his  enterprise  must 
have  failed   in  its  outset;    but  when   the   enemy  retired, 
satisfied  by  their  apparent  destruction,  the  Venetian  flotilla 
again  advanced,  laden  with  huge  masses  of  stone  and  bal- 
last, which  they  heaped  upon  the  sunken  wrecks  so  as  to 
obstnict  the  passage  of  the  inlet.     This  barrier  was  com- 
pleted on  the  following  day,  when  other  ships  were  sunk  at 
intervening  points,  and  the  line  connecting  them  was  filled 
up  and  fortified  by  a  strong  row  of  piles.     An  outpost  also 
was  occupied  within  the  Lagune^  on  the  little  island  Lova. 
^    To  throw  a  similar  barricade  across  the  strait  of  Bron- 


iMii 


240   BLOCKADE  OF  THE  STRAIT  OF  BRONDOLO. 


/* 


ARRIVAL  OF  CARLO  7E\'n. 


Q/ll 


u 


240   BLOCKADE  OF  THE  STRAIT  OF  BRONDOIO. 

dolo  was  a  far  more  difficult  task.  The  town  so  named 
stands  little  short  of  two  miles  from  Chiozza  ;*  and  the 
canal  which  connects  them,  not  exceeding  four  hundred 
paces  in  breadth,  is  navigable  only  under  the  immediate 
banks,  both  of  which  were  occupied  by  the  Genoese ;  yet, 
in  the  face  of  their  batteries,  and  exposed  to  a  terrific  fire, 
Frederico  Cornaro  penetrated  this  channel  with  four  ships. 
As  fourteen  of  the  enemy  bore  down  to  overwhelm  him, 
Pisani  made  the  combat  equal  by  advancing  with  ten  of  his 
own.  The  narrowness  of  the  scene  of  action  increased 
the  horrors  of  the  fight ;  nevertheless,  in  spite  of  their  great 
disadvantages,  the  Venetians  persisted  till  they  established 
themselves  in  the  desired  position,  and  closed  the  port  of 
Brondolo  as  effectually  as  that  of  Chiozza,  leaving  open 
only  a  narrow  passage  on  the  eastern  shore,  sufficiently 
broad  to  admit  a  single  ship.  The  mouth  of  the  canal 
leading  northward  to  Venice  was  similarly  dammed ;  and 
unless  the  Genoese  could  force  some  one  of  these  passages, 
they  were  now  deprived  of  all  possibility  of  escape. 

The  doge  remained  at  the  strait  of  Chiozza,  while  Pisani 
chose  for  himself  the  more  dangerous  station  off  Brondolo. 
Much  had  been  done  there,  but  to  render  these  labours 
permanently  effectual,  much  more  was  still  required.  If 
the  Genoese  could  once  master  the  sunken  vessels,  they 
might  disengage  themselves,  and  resume  their  superiority ; 
a  change  of  wind  also  mi^ht  drive  the  blockaders  from  their 
anchorage  ;  and  even  while  they  maintained  it  they  had  to 
endure  the  destructive  cross-fire  of  batteries  from  either 
shore.  The  toil  was  incessant,  the  loss  severe,  the  service 
most  harassing.  Two  galleys,  relieved  at  intervals,  were 
always  stationed,  at  imminent  risk,  in  the  very  jaws  of  the 
channel ;  and  upon  these  was  directed  the  chief  fury  of  the 
enemy.  A  fort  was  built  at  Fossone,  a  spot  on  the  south- 
east of  Brondolo,  and  nearly  opposite  a  convent  which 
formed  a  strong  post  of  the  Genoese  ;  but  the  engineers 
employed  upon  its  construction  worked  within  half  gunshot 
of  the  enemy,  and  suffered  proportionately ;  for  frequently 
in  the  course  of  a  single  day,  five  hundred  cannon-shots 
were  interchanged  between  the  opposite  batteries.  Conta- 
rini,  in  order  to  raise  the  spirits  of  his  followers,  had  sworn 
upon  his  sword  never  to  return  to  Venice  till  the  hostile 

*  Chinazzo,  755. 


^f 


ARRIVAL  OF  CARLO  ZENO. 


241 


f] 


fleet  had  surrendered;  but  this  solemn  profession  little 
appeased  the  hourly-increasing  murmurs  which  ran  through 
his  armament.  The  troops  exclaimed  against  the  rigour 
of  the  season,  and  the  unparalleled  hardships  of  the  service  ; 
till,  in  spite  of  the  doge's  vow,  Pisani  was  compelled  to 
promise  that,  if  the  fleet  of  Zeno,  so  long  and  so  anxiously 
expected,  did  not  join  him  in  two  days,  he  would  dis- 
continue his  enterprise. 

Never  did  a  greater  stake  depend  upon  the  hazard  of 
eight-and- forty  hours.  It  was  not  only  the  abandonment 
of  the  blockade  of  Chiozza,  and  the  loss  of  the  toil  which 
they  had  hitherto  expended,  that  the  Venetians  had  to  fear 
from  a  retreat.  For  whither  was  that  retreat  to  have  been 
directed  1  Venice,  already  suffering  under  scarcity,  could 
ill  readmit  a  large  addition  to  her  distressed  population ; 
nor,  if  she  did  admit,  could  she  afford  it  protection.  The 
Genoese,  flushed  by  success  and  superior  in  force,  would 
recover  all  their  former  advantages,  and,  warned  by  expe- 
rience, would  know  better  how  to  profit  by  them.  The 
glory,  nay,  perhaps  the  very  existence,  of  St.  Mark  must 
pass  away  for  ever  ! 

With  these  fearful  chances  dependent  on  its  course  arose 
the  first  day  of  the  new  year.  Pisani,  like  Columbus, 
had  gaged  his  all  against  time,  and  no  less  fortunate  ^'^' 
than  that  illustrious  navigator,  he  redeemed  his  '''°"* 
stake.  Every  eye  was  bent  upon  the  sea,  when  a  distant 
sail  studded  the  horizon ;  another  and  another  succeeded, 
till  fourteen  vessels  were  descried.  But  to  what  nation  did 
they  belong?  To  which  of  the  contending  parties  were 
they  messengers  of  safety  ?  Napoleon  did  not  inquire  more 
anxiously  whether  it  was  the  cannon  of  Grouchy  or  of 
Blucher  which  pealed  in  the  distance,  on  the  evening  of 
that  great  day  which  despoiled  him  of  his  crown,  than  the 
Venetians  sought  to  ascertain  whether  the  approaching 
squadron  was  that  of  friend  or  foe.  As  it  came  nearer  a 
well-known  signal  was  exhibited,  and  a  shout  of  transport 
announced  the  approach  of  Cario  Zeno. 

The  first  hours  after  his  arrival  were  passed  on  board  the 
galley  of  the  doge,  in  narrating  the  adventures  of  his  late 
voyages,  which  were  of  a  similar  romantic  cast  to  all  his 
former  history.  Towards  the  close  of  1378,  he  had  been 
despatched  with  five  galleys  by  Pisani  on  a  separate  service 
Vol.  I. — X 


242 


ADVENTURES  OF 


CARLO  ZENO. 


243 


.\ 


to  observe  the  coasts  of  Sicily,  and  there  he  intercepted 
numerous  convoys  laden  with  grain  for  Genoa.  Having 
been  joined  by  another  squadron  of  four  vessels,  from 
Crete,  which  had  been  equally  successful  in  the  Archi- 
pelago, and  had  amassed  booty  valued  at  forty-five  thousand 
pieces  of  gold,  he  felt  himself  sufficiently  strong  to  approach 
the  enemy's  coast ;  and  at  the  very  moment  of  the  Ligu- 
rian  triumph  at  Pola,  Carlo  Zeno  was  laying  waste  the 
entire  Riviera  di  Levante,  from  the  Gulf  of  Spezzia  to  Genoa 
itself.  Scattering  terror  through  the  Mediterranean,  he 
next  made  sail  for  Greece,  and  there  gained  new  distinction 
^  g  on  the  scene  of  his  early  fame,  by  successfully  renew- 
ing his  attempts  for  the  restoration  of  Calojohannes 
to  the  throne  usurped  by  his  son.  While  in  the  East,  his 
squadron  obtained  great  increase  of  strength  by  the  junction 
of  occasional  stragglers  ;  and  after  passing  the  summer  in 
the  Levantine  seas,  giving  aid  to  the  King  of  Cyprus,  and 
grievously  harassing  the  Genoese  commerce,  he  found  him- 
self at  the  head  of  eighteen  galleys  at  Berytus  when 
information  was  conveyed  to  him  of  the  fall  of  Chiozza,  and 
the  consequent  great  peril  of  his  country.  Even  if  the 
orders  for  his  return  had  not  been  most  peremptory,  his  own 
wishes  would  have  prompted  him  to  hasten  to  her  relief. 
Taking  with  him,  therefore,  a  convoy  from  Syria,  he  lost 
no  time  in  pressing  homewards ;  and  on  his  course,  off 
Rhodes,  he  encountered  the  largest  and  bcst-built  ship  of 
his  time,  the  Genoese  Pichio7ia.  She  is  described  to  have 
been  a  three-decker,  almost  cannon-proof,  bearing,  exclu- 
sively of  mariners  and  passengers,  three  hundred  armed 
men,  and  towering  as  a  castle  above  the  waters.*  The 
pursuit  was  long  and  arduous,  and  when  overtaken,  her 
great  superiority  of  size  enabled  her  to  oppose  the  combined 
attack  of  four  galleys,  during  a  whole  day  and  the  succeed- 
ing night.  Many  of  Zeno's  men  were  slightly  hurt,  but 
only  one,  a  rower,  was  killed.  He  himself  was  twice 
wounded  ;  once  in  the  foot,  a  second  time  by  an  arrow  in 
the  left  eye.  But  his  ardour  was  irresistible.  The  huge 
vessel  took  fire  during  the  action,  and  when  this  was  extin- 
guished, she  was  at  length  carried  by  boarding.  The  cap- 
tured treasure  was  of  almost  inestimable  value ;  and  from 

*  Era  di  tri  coperte,  tutta  incorata  di/uori  via,  «  pama  a  vedere  un 

C<Ut$llO.—CbXRQ210. 


the  ship's  papers,  her  precious  lading  was  valued  at  five 
hundred  thousand  pieces  of  gold.  To  each  of  some  Floren- 
tine merchants  whom  he  found  on  board,  he  presented  a 
hundred  ducats  for  their  expenses  on  landing  at  Rhodes, 
and  dismissed  them  after  much  courteous  and  honourable 
treatment.  Then  taking  out  the  cargo  and  distributing  it 
through  his  own  ships,  he  sank  the  Genoese,  which  had 
been  too  much  injured  during  the  action  to  be  conveyed  to 
Italy.  Arrived  in  the  Adriatic,  he  placed  his  convoy  in 
safety  at  Parenzo,  and  passing  on  to  Venice,  received 
orders  to  join  the  doge.  After  weathering  a  storm  which 
destroyed  one  of  his  squadron,  he  brought  to  Chiozza  a 
force  which  terminated  all  doubt  respecting  the  issue  of  the 
contest.  Even  if  the  Genoese  could  disengage  themselves 
from  blockade,  they  would  now  be  ehcountered,  on  the  open 
seas  by  superior  numbers ;  for  the  Venetians  counted  in 
all  no  less  than  fifty-two  galleys.  The  supplies  poured  in 
were  abundant,  confidence  had  revived,  and  the  very  name 
and  presence  of  Carlo  Zeno  was  as  a  tower  of  strength  to 
his  countrymen. 

The  post  which  Zeno  selected  was  that  demanding 
greatest  activity  :  and  though  not  yet  recovered  from  his 
wounds,  he  anchored  off  Brondolo  on  the  evening  of  his 
arrival.  For  the  two  succeeding  days  a  heavy  gale  forced 
the  blockading  squadron  from  its  station,  and  the  Genoese 
advanced  to  attack  their  works ;  yet  by  extreme  exertion 
Zeno,  who  at  one  time  had  been  driven,  by  stress  of  wea- 
ther, to  the  mouth  of  the  port  of  Chiozza,  returned  with 
three  galleys  to  his  original  moorings,  and  forced  the  enemy 
once  more  to  retire.  This  success  was  not  obtained  with- 
out considerable  loss.  One  of  his  vessels  was  compelled 
to  surrender ;  and  on  the  evening  of  the  thirteenth  day, 
the  galley  which  himself  commanded,  unable  to  resist  the 
violence  of  the  gale  and  the  strength  of  the  current,  drifted 
under  the  Genoese  forts.  The  cries  of  the  mariners  strug- 
gling with  the  tempest  betrayed  them  to  the  sentinels,  not- 
withstanding the  darkness  ;  and  a  heavy  fire  of  cannon, 
and  of  all  other  missiles  belonging  to  earlier  warfare,  was 
pointed  in  the  supposed  direction  of  the  grounded  vessel. 
Its  situation  was  most  desperate  ;  but  Zeno  silenced  every 
proposal  of  surrender.  At  length,  an  expert  swimmer, 
taking  a  rope  in  his  hand,  threw  himself  into  the  wintry 


J 


244 


l^'l 


■  '( 


fj  ^ 


GREAT  DANGER  OF  CARIO  2EN0. 


t 


sea,  in  despite  of  the  storm,  and  buffeted  the  waves  till  he 
gained  the  main  squadron  at  its  anchorage.     Zeno,  mean- 
time, lightened  his  vessel,  by  throwing  overboard  his  guns 
and  ballast :  she  righted,  and  was  slowly  towed  out  of  the 
enemy's  line  ;  but  at  the  moment  in  which  danger  seemed 
at  an  end,  an  arrow,  shot  at  random,  pierced  the  throat  of 
the  commander.     Anxious  only  for  the  safety  of  his  men, 
Zeno  disregarded  the  wound,  and  continued  unconcernedly 
to  give  his  orders ;  but  in  hurrying  along  the  deck,  he 
missed  his  footing  in  the  darkness,  and  stumbling  through 
an  open  hatchway,  fell  to  the  bottom  of  the  hold.     The 
sailors  who  raised  him  plucked  the  arrow  from  his  neck, 
and  the  gush  of  blood  which  instantly  followed  wellnigh 
suffocated  him.     He  was  lying  on  his  back  and  speechless ; 
but  still  retaining  entire  self-possession,  he  made  signs  to 
the  bystanders  to  change  his  position,  and  turn  him  on  his 
face.     This  presence  of  mind  saved  him ;  for  the  blood, 
now  obtaining  a  free  vent,  ceased  to  discharge  itself  inter- 
nally.    His  wound,  nevertheless,  on  first  examination,  was 
pronounced   mortal;    and    instant   removal   to   land    was 
advised,  as  affording  the  sole,  faint,  desperate  hope  of  reco- 
very.    Zeno,  with  unshaken  firmness,  refused  to  quit  his 
vessel.     If  he  were  to  die,  it  should  be,  he  said,  on  his  post  • 
Providence  would  dispose  of  his  life ;  but  he  himself  must 
be  the  guardian  of  his  honour.     The  vigour  of  his  consti- 
tution prevailed ;  and  in  a  few  weeks  he  was  restored  to 
the  service  of  his  country,  although  the  surgeons,  anxious, 
perhaps,  for  the  reputation  of  their  prognostics,  continued 
to  affirm  that  the  deviation  of  a  single  hair's  breadth  from 
the  actual  position  of  the  wound  must  have  rendered  it  fatal. 
Pisani,  meantime,  during  the  absence  of  his  distinguished 
colleague,  continued  to  press  the  blockade  with  undiminished 
vigour ;  and  his  batteries  at  Fossone  were  mounted  with 
artillery  of  the  most  stupendous  caliber.     In  the  infancy  of 
the  art  of  gunnery,  the  size  of  the  ball  to  be  launched  was 
the  chief  object  to  which  engineers  addressed  themselves  • 
and  the  uncertainty  of  aim,  the  infrequency  of  discharge,* 
and  the  disproportionate  expenditure  of  gunpowder  were 
disregarded,  provided  the  mass  hurled  against  the  enemy 
was  of  sufficiently  gigantic  dimensions.     Of  two  mortars 
employed  by  Pisani,  one  is  said  to  have  carried  a  marble 
bullet  weiffhing  one  hundred  and  forty  pounds,-~the  other 


/ 


'I 

.» 

J} 


SIR  JOHN  HAWKWOOD. 


245 


one  of  a  hundred  and  ninety- five.  They  were  loaded  and 
fired  but  once  in  each  day  ;  and  if  they  struck  their  mark 
(a  rare  occurrence),  the  eflect  produced  was,  as  may  be 
imagined,  most  (destructive.  Pietro  Doria,  happily  perhaps 
for  his  fame,  perished  by  one  of  these  random  shots.  He 
was  inspecting  his  works  at  Brondolo,  when  the 
campanile  of  the  town  and  a  long  line  of  rampart  '  " 
adjoining  it  were  shattered  by  an  enormous  cannon-ball, 
and  the  ruins  overwhelmed  both  the  Genoese  commander 
and  his  nephew. 

Doria  was  succeeded  by  Napoleone  Grimaldi,  who,  find- 
ing that  all  chance  of  escape  by  the  natural  channels  was 
desperate,  still  thought  to  elude  the  vigilance  of  his  enemy 
by  a  bold  expedient.  While  the  Venetians  watched  the 
mouths  of  the  two  ports,  he  hoped,  by  cutting  a  canal 
across  the  island  of  Brondolo,  between  both  the  straits,  to 
penetrate  the  aggere ;  perhaps,  under  cover  of  darkness,  to 
pass  unobserved  round  the  blockading  squadron,  and  once 
again  to  threaten  Venice,  wholly  defenceless  in  the  absence 
of  her  fleet.  Carrara  had  been  able  to  reinforce  him  ;  and 
his  garrison,  notwithstanding  its  repeated  losses,  still 
amounted  to  thirteen  thousand  men,  partly  occupying  the 
town,  partly  encamped  on  the  island  connected  with  it  by 
a  bridge.  The  projected  work  was  commenced  at  the  back 
of  the  convent  of  Brondolo  ;  but  it  was  not  long  before  the 
Venetians  perceived  its  object,  and  resolved  to  frustrate  it 
by  measures  equally  daring.  Their  little  army  consisted 
of  eight  thousand  men  ;  and  they  had  negotiated  with  Sir 
John  Hawkwood,*  the  well-known  English  condottiere^ 
whose  term  of  service  with  the  Milanese,  by  whom  he  had 

*  Sir  John  Hawkwood  was  one  of  Edward  Ill.'s  most  distinguished 
generals,  who,  at  tlie  dose  of  the  successful  invasion  of  France  by  that 
prince,  organized  a  free  company  of  English,  known  in  contemporary 
history,  either  as  Lcs  Tard-Vnws,  or  Alba  Cnmitiva.  A  most  inter- 
esting account  of  this  band  may  be  found  in  Villani.  Hawkwood's  name 
has  undergone  many  amusing  transformations.  By  Froissari  he  is  some- 
times called  Hacnnde,  at  others,  Harton.  The  Italians,  from  a  false 
report  that  his  father  was  a  tailor,  called  him  Giovanni  Augvto,  Johan- 
nes Acutus  C.Tohn  ^\\^T\t),  or  Giovanni  delta  6'M;?Zea(Johnof  iheNeedle), 
and  Villani  effects  a  much  more  portentous  change.  "  Vanni  Agvto" 
he  says,  "is  called  in  English,  Kauchnuvole.  i.e.  Falcone  di  Bosco, 
because  his  mother,  being  in  the  pains  of  child-birth,  and  finding  her 
labour  attended  with  diliiculty,  caused  herself  to  be  carried  into  an 
adjoining  grove,  and  there  brought  him  forth,"— an  expedient  not  very 
cloeely  adapted  either  to  the  habits  or  the  climate  of  England. 

X2 


t 


''\ 


s 


If 


( 


246         ATTACK  OF  THE  ISLE  OF  BRONDOLO. 

been  first  engaged,  had  now  expired,  for  the  assistance  of 
his   bands,   so  that  a  powerful  reinforcement  under  his 
orders  was  daily  expected.     But  a  more  lucrative  employ- 
ment, or  the  intrigues  of  Carrara,  diverted  the  wandering 
knight  from  his  engagement ;  and  when  he  failed  at  the 
stipulated  rendezvous,  the  signory,  yielding  to   the  injme- 
diate  urgency  of  their  situation,  laid  aside  for  the  moment 
their  petty  jealousy  of  native  talent,  and  contrary  to  their 
received  state  maxims,  resolved  to  intrust  their  land  forces  to 
the  guidance  of  Carlo  Zeno,whose  singular  vprsatility  of  pow- 
ers qualified  him,  notwithstanding  his  great  naval  fame,  in  a 
still  higher  degree  for  military  operations.  His  wounds  being 
now  healed,  he  hastened  toVulfil  his  new  duties  with  alac- 
rity, and  the  first  act  of  his  command  exhibited  a  splendid 
instance  of  disinterestedness.     The  sordid  mercenaries  of 
whom  his   troops  chiefly  consisted,  grasping,  avaricious, 
discontented,  and  little  under  subordination,  profited  by  the 
importance  of  the  crisis,  and  refused  to  undertake  the  fresh 
service  for  which  they  were  designed  without  the  distribu- 
tion of  a  largess.     The  military  chest,  exhausted  by  long 
and  repeated  demands,  could  furnish  no  more  than  five 
hundred  ducats  ;  but  Zeno  doubled  that  sum  from  his  pri- 
vate resources,  and  for  a  season  secured  obedience. 

In  order  effectually  to  counteract  the  meditated  design  of 
the  Genoese,  it  was  necessary  that  they  should  be  driven 
from  the  Isle  of  Brondolo,  and  shut  up  within  their  walls 
in   Chiozza.     A  combined   attack   by  sea  and   land  was 
accordingly  arranged,  and  the  town  and  convent  of  Bron- 
dolo were  to  be  assaulted  at  once  from  opposite  quarters, 
by  the  disembarkation  of  Pisani's  mariners,  as  soon  as  he 
perceived  Zeno  to  be  engaged.     On  the  19th  of  February, 
before  daybreak,   Zeno  crossed  from  Pelestrina   and  the 
fort  of  Lova,  with  6000  men,  and  proceeded,  in  the  first 
instance,  to  dislodge  the  troops  in  Little  Chiozza,  whom  he 
was  unwilling  to  leave   on  his   rear  while  he  should  be 
employed  at  Brondolo.     The  post  against  which  he  first 
directed  himself  was  of  considerable  strength,  though  no 
more  than  a  bell-tower  occupied  by  nineteen  men  ;  yet  this 
little  handful  defended  it  so  courageously,  that  four  alone 
remained  alive  after  a  protracted  conflict  wliich  lasted  during 
five  hours. 

The  Genoese,  either  supposing  that  the  chief  attack  was 


( 


DEFEAT    OF   THE    GENOESE. 


247 


•    '* 


intended  against  Little  Chiozza,  or  that  the  maintenance  of 
that  post  was  of  paramount  importance,  hastily  summoned 
the  garrison  of  Brondolo  to  its  defence;  and  in  the  mean 
time  prepared  for  a  sortie  with  the  entire  force  within  the 
walls  of  Chiozza  itself.  About  1500  men  from  Brondolo 
fell,  somewhat  by  surprise,  upon  the  Venetian  rear ;  but 
Zeno,  changing  his  front  with  inconceivable  rapidity,  di- 
rected his  English*  bands  to  charge  and  overthrow  them ; 
while,  by  a  still  more  dexterous  movement,  he  placed  his 
main  body  between  the  routed  column  and  Brondolo,  from 
which  it  had  advanced.  One  retreat  alone  was  open,  by 
the  bridge  of  Chiozza  ;  and  thither  the  fugitives  directed 
their  terrified  steps,  at  the  moment  in  which  8000  men  were 
pouring  across  it  to  deploy  upon  the  field  of  battle.  The 
collision  of  these  opposite  torrents  was  destmctive  to  both, 
as  wave  broke  fiercely  upon  wave  in  contrary  directions. 
The  panic  of  the  discomfited  body  speedily  communicated 
itself  to  that  which  was  advancing  :  the  leading  ranks 
wavered  ;  those  which  followed  pressed  upon  them  from 
behind  ;  their  defeated  comrades  bore  down  yet  more  heavily 
in  front,  and  the  dense  mass  was  agitated  to  and  fro,  with- 
out the  power  of  effective  advance  or  retreat.  Ere  long  the 
confusion,  increased  by  the  narrowness  of  the  passage  which 
they  were  traversing,  became  utterly  inextricable.  Hun- 
dreds were  trampled  under  foot ;  and  to  bring  the  calamity 
to  its  height,  the  bridge  gave  way  beneath  the  unusual 
pressure,  precipitating,  together  with  its  shattered  arches, 
many  of  the  combatants  into  the  channel  below,  and  wholly 
intercepting  the  flight  of  such  as  remained  beyond  the 
chasm.  Few  in  either  of  these  fearful  cases  escaped 
death.  The  heavy  armour  of  such  as  had  fallen  into  the 
canal  of  Sta.  Caterina  whelmed  them  beneath  the  flood  ; 

*  An  English  captain,  Checco,  (Cheke  ?)  is  mentioned  by  Sanuto  (70S) 
as  serving  under  Zeno.  That  hero's  biographer,  the  Bishop  of  Belluno, 
latinizes  the  name  as  if  it  were  William  Cook.  Zeno  is  jnade  to  address 
him  in  a  long  speech  on  the  field  of  battle,  just  before  this  deciaiTe 
charge; — Accitoque  ad  se  Anglico  ductore  Guilielmo.  quem  cognomento 
Coquum  nvncvpabant  svi,  quod  inttr  primos  ejus  virtutem  probitatem- 
que  expertus  norat,  &c.  (240.)  Again,  in  narrating  the  conspiracy  of 
Roberto  di  Recanati,  the  same  English  knight  is  mentioned  with  great 
distinction.  Gidliehnus  Brittannid,  quam  Angliam  dicimus.  trahens 
ariginan.  Is  perstrenv<B  vxrtutis,  celsique  animivvr,  et  probata  Jidri. 
(260.)  In  the  engagement  dftscribed  above,  it  is  said,  Primi  Angli  fior- 
T0ndis  sublatis  voc^us,  cursim  in  hostes  irrumpunt.    (242.) 


248      DISCONTENT  OF  THE  VENETIAN  TROOPS. 

ajid  the  sword  was  little  likely  to  spare  those  who  still 
clung  to  land. 

The  carnage  was  horrible:  more  than  three  thousand 
men  fell  upon  the  spot ;  and  of  the  many  who  threw  down 
their  arms,  only  six  hundred  received  quarter.  Chinazzo, 
by  a  graphic  touch,  acquaints  us  with  the  abundant  booty 
left  on  the  field.  «  Any  one,"  he  says,  «  who  wished  to 
have  a  suit  of  armour  for  a  ducat,  might  have  bought  as 
many  as  he  pleased."  By  this  success  the  object  of  the 
Venetians  was  completely  gained ;  for  at  niahtfall  the  few 
troops  remaining  in  Brondolo  abandoned  that  post,  and 
taking  to  their  boats,  fled  to  Chiozza ;  having  first  destroyed 
the  works  of  the  convent,  scuttled  the  gaUeys  which  thev 
were  unable  to  carry  off,  and  then  set  them  on  fire.  Two 
of  these  were  rescued  from  the  flames  by  Pisani,  and  ten 
were  destroyed.  But  the  terror  of  defeat  ended  not  here  ; 
Chiozza  Itself,  the  last  hope  of  Genoa  in  the  La^me,  was 
deserted  by  more  than  half  its  garrison.  Before  dawn, 
ZF^     T^^^'"^'"^ .'''''' >^  ^«">d  b«  gained  was 

tives  of  Padua;  and  such  was  their  anxiety  for  escape  that 
many,  unable  to  procure  boats  and  endeavourina  to  wade 
across  the  marshes,  were  found  in  the  morning"  stiffened 
with  cold  and  frozen  to  death  in  the  attempt.  Ten  more 
galleys,  which  lay  off  the  mills  of  Chiozza,  were  occupied 
by  Pisani  without  a  blow  ;  for  their  crews  as  he  approached 
were  panic-stricken,  and  leaping  into  the  sea  swam  to  the 
neighbouring  walls. 

Splendid  as  was  this  success,  its  fruits  were  nearly 
wrested  from  the  gallant  chief  through  whose  skill  and  valour 
It  had  been  won,  by  the  evil  passions  of  some  among  his 
thZtJ"'  T^  symptoms  of  insubordination  manifested 
forX  r  '^  "  """T  V"'  cordotHen  loudly  clamoured 
for  double  pay  ;  and  on  the  day  succeeding  their  victory, 
they  threatened   to  withdraw  altogether,  unless  their  de' 

person^  means,  and  he  employed  them  in  buying  over  the 
chief  officers  to  silence  the  importunity  of  their  men  Nor 
was  this  his  only  difficulty  :  the  jealous  spirit  of  Just'inianT 

^v'en  toP-''""''^''  \^'  '''"'"^  *h^  s'uperior  command 
given  to  Pisani  upon  his  release  from  prison  ;  but  when  his 

own  share  of  power  was  still  further  diminished  by  the 


IMPATIENCE  OF  THE  SENATORS. 


249 


appointment  of  Carlo  Zeno,  he  lost  all  self-control,  and  openly 
refused  obedience  to  his  orders,  till,  as  a  check  upon  these 
growing  divisions,  it  became  necessary  to  detach  him  on  a 
remote  service. 

A  third  trial  remained  for  Zeno.  To  his  great  energy 
in  the  field  he  united  a  quality  not  always  found  in  com- 
pany with  valour — consummate  prudence.  He  plainly  saw 
that  further  risk  of  open  battle  was  needless  ;  and  that  if 
he  could  shut  out  supplies  from  Chiozza  it  must  eventually 
fall.  For  this  purpose  he  contented  himself  with  distributing 
his  troops  in  posts  removed  beyond  the  fire  of  the  ramparts, 
and  framing  lines  of  countervallation  to  protect  himself  from 
surprise.  These  measures,  however  well  adapted  to  his 
great  object,  were  viewed  with  an  evil  eye  by  a  large  por- 
tion of  the  senators  who  accompanied  the  doge  on  this 
expedition  ;  for,  unused  to  the  privations  necessarily  attend- 
ant upon  a  naval  campaign,  and  worn  by  the  tedium  and 
the  fatigues  which  they  had  already  endured  during  two 
months'  confinement  on  shipboard,  they  hailed  the  late  vic- 
tory with  delight,  as  affording  them  hopes  of  speedy  restora- 
tion to  the  capital  and  its  luxurious  repose.  A  few  assaults, 
as  they  imagined,  would  complete  the  reduction  of  Chiozza, 
and  terminate  their  share  in  a  drama  ill  adapted  to  their 
habits.  What  then  was  their  chagrin  and  impatience, 
when  they  observed  the  adoption  of  a  system  which  threat- 
ened an  indefinite  delay,  and  protracted  to  an  uncertain 
season  their  freedom  from  the  shackles  in  which  the  rash 
vow  of  Contarini  had  involved  them! 

Electing  themselves  into  judges  of  military  tactics,  they 
protested  against  the  hazard  and  fluctuations  of  a  blockade. 
A  thousand  accidents,  they  said,  might  relieve  Chiozza,  if 
time  were  granted  for  recovery  from  the  terror  of  recent 
defeat.  Not  to  fellow  up  success  was  to  fall  into  the  very 
error  through  which  Doria  had  brought  upon  himself  his 
reverses.  To  lengthen  the  campaign  was  to  entangle  the 
republic  in  expenses  which,  in  her  present  exhaustion,  she 
could  ill  support ;  and  to  linger  till  the  ardour  of  troops, 
flushed  by  victory  became  extinguished,  was  to  trifle  with, 
and  to  run  counter  to  fortune.  Happily  for  his  country, 
the  courage  which  animated  Zeno  was  not  less  of  a  mora! 
than  of  a  physical  character.  Knowing  that  the  course 
which  he  was  pursuing  waa  the  best  calculated  to  ensure 


250 


DISTRESS    OF    CHIOZZA. 


VAIN  ATTEMPT  TO  RELIEVE  IT. 


251 


success,  he  persisted  in  it,  unmoved  by  these  idle  remon- 
strances and  reproaches  ;  and  he  shook  aside,  with  deserved 
contempt,  the  foul  and  false  insinuation  to  which  every  act 
of  his  life  afforded  a  reply,  that  other  qualities  were  needed 
in  a  general  besides  circumspection. 

In  pursuance  of  his  design,  he  strictly  forbade  any  of 
those  personal  rencounters  which,  during  the  inaction  of  a 
blockade,  were  often  permitted  by  the  license  of  war  in  the 
middle  ages  ;  when  frequently  a  champion  would  issue  from 
the  lines,  and  in  the  hope  of  distinction,  perhaps  of  booty, 
would  challenge  one  of  the  beleaguered  garrison  to  single 
combat.  Many  valuable  soldiers  were  killed  or  disabled  in 
these  unproductive  contests  ;  and  a  force  which  it  was  im- 
portant to  preserve  entire  was  thus  wasted  in  detail.  Zeno 
determined  to  repress  this  irregular  warfare  ;  and  throwing 
up  a  redoubt  at  a  spot  not  far  beyond  his  intrenchments, 
and  at  the  distance  of  a  bowshot  from  Chiozza,  he  pro- 
claimed that  the  loss  of  a  foot  should  be  the  punishment 
inflicted  on  any  one  who  transgressed  this  limit  without 
permission  ;  and  as  this  severe  penalty  was  rigidly  exacted, 
but  a  few  examples  were  sufficient  to  procure  obedience. 

It  was  not  long  before  the  effect  of  the  blockade  was 
perceived  ;  for  the  garrison,  straitened  for  provisions,  and 
already  reduced  to  the  most  loathsome  food,*  adopted  the 
cruel  but  necessary  expedient  of  excluding  from  their  walls 
every  inhabitant  incapable  of  bearing  arms  ;  and  the  inter- 
mediate space  between  the  city  and  the  camp  was  filled  with 
a  helpless  throng  of  aged  persons,  children,  and  women.f 
To  the  honour  of  Venetian  humanity,  it  was  remembered 
that  these  were  fellow-countrymen  ;  and  although  bread  at 
the  moment  was  selling  at  four  times  its  usual  price  in 
Venice,  no  hesitation  was  felt  as  to  the  reception  of  these 
unhappy  and  deserted  beings  ;  and  they  were  shipped  and 
transported  to  the  capital. 

Many  weeks,  however,  passed  away,  and  notwithstand- 
ing their  privations,  the  garrison  still  continued  to  hold  out. 
It  was  known  that  a  fleet,  under  Maruffo,  a  Genoese  admiral 

*  MangioTido  ratti,  grand  et  ogni  altra  cosa  immtmda.— Chinazzo, 
762.  ' 

t  Chinazzo  says,  h  donne  e  iputti,  and  that  the  soldiers  would  wil- 
lingly have  followed,  if  the  Genoese  government  had  not  threatened  to 
hang  every  individual  who  quitted  the  town,  (762.) 


of  distinction,  which  had  encountered  Justiniani  and  sig- 
nally defeated  him  at  Manfredonia,  was  novr  on  its  way  to 
the  relief  of  Chiozza ;  and  in  the  course  of  April,  in  spite 
of  the  vigilance  of  the  besiegers,  Gasparo  Spinola,  an  oflScer 
of  great  skill  and  courage,  who  had  been  despatched  from 
Genoa  to  assume  the  command,  succeeded  in  throwing  in 
a  large  supplv  from  Padua,  by  the  channels  of  the  Brenta. 
At  length,  on" the  6th  of  June,  the  squadron  so  much  wished 
for  and  so  long  expected  by  the  besieged,  hove  in  sight ;  but 
it  was  to  afford  only  a  brief  and  delusive  hope.     The  same 
barriers  which  the  Venetians  had  framed  in  the  ports  of 
Brondolo  and  Chiozza  to  shut  in  Doria  now  contributed 
as  effectually  to  shut  out  Maruffo.     Each  entrance  was  suc- 
cessively reconnoitered  by  him,  and  abandoned  as  inacces- 
sible ;  while  the  wretched  garrison,  which  still  continued  to 
cherish  hopes  of  relief,  watched  his  approach  from  the  ram- 
parts with  eager  eyes,  and  burst  into  passionate  lamenta- 
tions on  his  retreat.    The  Venetian  fleet  remained  at  anchor 
in  perfect  safety  within  the  Lagune  ;  and  protected  by  dams 
and  batteries  in  the  straits,  which  it  was  not  possible  for  the 
enemy  to  force,  declined  the  battle  to  which  it  was  chal- 
lenged, in  spite  of  every  provocation.     The  Genoese  in 
vain  taunted  the  "  Venetian  hogs"  {Veneziani  porci)  with 
cowardice  ;  they  continued  immoveable.     This  term  of  re- 
proach appears  to  have  been  unsparingly  employed  ;  for  we 
read,  that,  on  another  occasion,  when  Pisani  made  a  move- 
ment which  was  falsely  interpreted  into  preparation  for 
retreat,  the  sentinels  on  the  walls  of  Chiozza  shouted, 
"  the  hogs  are  running  away"  (?  porci  scapano).*    Once  only 
was  a  chance  of  action  afforded,  when  the  Genoese  admiral 
took  up  his  position  off  Fossone,  in  order  to  intercept  the 
communications  with  Ferrara.    A  convoy  was  expected  from 
that  city,  and  Pisani,  to  ensure  its  passage,  bore  out  of  the 
port  with  twenty-five  sail,  apparently  prepared  for  combat. 
Having  stood  off  to  the  open  sea,  he  allured  Maruffo  into 
pursuit ;  and  after  sufficient  time  had  been  afforded  for  the 
reception  of  the  convoy,  he  baflBed  his  enemy  by  skilful 
manoeuvring,  and   returned  again  to  his   anchorage  un- 
molested. 
Before  the  arrival  of  Maruffo's  fleet  a  proposition  had 

I  *  eataro,  864. 


252 


SORTIE. 


already  been  offered  for  surrender,  and,  on  condition  of  net 
bemg  detained  prisoners,  the  Genoese  tendered  the  evac^f 
tion  of  Chiozza.     The  reply  was  a  stern  negative  ;  and  e^en 
when  the  near  approach  of  succour  was  iSiown,  ContS 
gave  evident  proof  of  the  light  regard  which  he  attached^o 
the  presence  of  his  new  enemy,  by  issuing  a  prodamttio^ 
requinng  each  individual  in  the  garrison  wh^o  hoped  f"^^^ 
to  quit  Chiozza,  and  present  himself  on  a  fixed  dav  afthe 
gates  of  the  public  prison  in  Venice.     This  insuFwal  re! 
ceived  mdignantly  ;  and  in  lieu  of  submitting  to  drstrace 
so  intolerable  the  garrison  resolved  on  one  la^st,  de  perate 
attempt  to  penetrate  the  Venetian  lines,  and  cu   thTwav 
to  the  squadron  of  Maruffo.     All  their  recrular  craft  had 
been  destroyed  during  the   blockade  ;    but°  havinT  found 
means  of  communicating  their  design  to  the  aSl   thev 
hastily  constructed  a  rude  flotilla  of  boats  and  raffs  from  the 
timber  of  houses  demolished  for  the  sake  of  that  matTr Ll 
and  from  various  articles  of  wooden  furniture.*     One  hTn- 
June  15.    ^Jred  of  these  frail  and  shapeless  floats,  each  pro- 

and  .f  t>7^  ^^  "^''^  '1."/"^^'  ^^^^i^^^  ^he  whole  garrison  • 
and  at  the  moment  of  their  embarkation,  Maruffo  appeared 
off  the  barricades,  and  commenced  a  brisk  attack  upon^m 
All  chance  of  success  depended  upon  surprise -bntfr: 
signals  between  the  city  and  the  fleet  hn/n.?  '  i  ^^ 
t|ced;  Pisani  easily  ^enitattC^^'^r—^Z 
tivcly  small  force;  and  directina  hJ*  ohi^f  "icompara- 
the  barks  which  ^ere.  erossfnnhe  Lt^.  ff': '?"'* 

lows  and  put  to  the  sword  the  half-drowned  wretches  who 

to  terra  Jirma,  and    eft  the  unimtpfni  *.">     c      ^^  ^^"fed 
to  his  lieutenant      Thl  A\     ""fateful  task  of  capitulation 

thar-o-r-J^^^^^^^ 

Venice  was  known  or  suspected    hv  *>,«  k     •  "^ /^^  °\ 

thinking  to  profit  by  the  ava^'atdts^dtZn  ^f  rh^ 


MilHiiiiiiiiiilii^ 


n 


n 


i^> 


TREACHERY  OF  ROBERTO  DI  RECANATI.   253 

condottierif  they  addressed  their  proposals,  in  the  first  in- 
stance, to  them,  not  either  to  Zeno  or  to  Contarini.  Before 
their  deputies  approached  the  camp,  all  the  prisoners  taken 
during  the  siege  were  freely  released  and  dismissed,  partly 
in  hope  of  conciliation,  partly  from  inability  to  feed  them ; 
and  well  knowing  that  no  ofter  was  likely  to  receive  admis- 
sion by  the  rapacious  marauders  to  whom  they  now  directed 
themselves,  if  it  implied  the  slightest  diminution  of  booty, 
the  garrison  tendered  their  arms,  stores,  and  treasure,  with 
the  possession  of  the  town,  to  the  free  companies,  provided 
they  would  guaranty  their  personal  freedom,  and  protection 
from  the  Venetians.  The  insidious  proposal  was  eagerly 
received ;  and  but  for  the  prompt  and  dexterous  exertions 
of  Zeno,  the  fruits  of  her  long  toil  might  have  been  lost  to 
Venice  at  the  very  moment  of  their  full  ripeness.  He  repre- 
sented to  his  troops  that  no  gain  could  result  to  them  by 
the  grant  of  such  terms  ;  and  that  to  accede  to  stipulations 
made  by  those  who  were  without  power  to  resist,  was  gra- 
tuitously to  surrender  a  prize  already  within  their  grasp. 
It  was  his  intention,  he  said,  to  abandon  the  town  to  them 
for  plunder :  all  the  mercenaries  within  it  should  fall  to  their 
share  as  prisoners ;  and  the  doge  required  nothing  more 
than  the  bare  walls  of  Chiozza,  and  such  Genoese,  Paduans, 
Dalmatians,  and  Greeks,  as,  being  trained  to  the  marine, 
might  be  employed  at  the  oar. 

These  arguments  prevailed  with  the  majority,  and  one 
only  of  the  leaders  refused  assent,  Roberto  di  Recanati,  who 
appears  to  have  been  an  officer  of  distinction,  commanding 
one  hundred  lances  and  four  hundred  infantry.  Engaged 
in  secret  communication  with  the  enemy,  and  bribed  by 
them  with  a  promise  of  forty  thousand  ducats  to  excite 
cabals  in  the  camp,  he  spread  at  one  time  a  report  that  it 
was  Zeno's  intention  not  to  deliver  up  Chiozza  to  be  pil- 
laged ;  at  another,  he  revived  a  cry  for  double  pay  ;  and  in 
the  end,  he  did  not  hesitate  to  propose  that  his  men  should 
desert  the  banners  under  which  they  were  now  engaged, 
and  embrace  the  cause  of  Genoa.  Some  few  were  base  and 
rash  enough  to  listen  to  the  suggestion  :  when  Zeno,  learn- 
ing the  agitation  which  prevailed,  threw  himself,  sword  in 
hand,  among  the  mutineers  ;  and  now  by  promises,  now  by 
threats,  succeeded  in  calming  the  tumult.  Order,  however, 
was  not  restored,  until  he  had  solemnly  pledged  himself  to 

Vol.  I. — ^Y 


1 


25i4. 


fiTTPUT  Tri  *  TTrkX-e     r\-tT    r¥»Tr»-. 


254 


SUPPLICATIONS  OF  THE  GARRISON*. 


grant  a  month's  additional  pay  as  a  gratuity,  and  to  abandon 
Chiozza  to  their  rapnie  for  a  period  of  three  davs.     Reca- 
nati,  thus  far  disappointed  in  his  perfidious  designs,  sought 
their  achievement  by  a  yet  blacker  crime,  and  undertook  the 
assassination  of  Zeno  and  his  chief  officers.     The  proofs 
were  manifest ;  and  Zeno,  having  submitted  them,  on  the 
following  night,  to  a  council  of  war,  but  a  few  hours  before 
the  treachery  was  to  have  been  executed,  appealed  to  the 
honour  of  his  captains.     With  one  voice  they  indignantly 
disclaimed  all  participation  in,  all  knowledge  of  the  foul 
conspiracy  ;  and  eagerly  demanded  the  instant  punishment 
of  the  traitor.      Recanati  was  seized  ;   but  his  followers, 
unacquainted  with  his  guilt  and  deceived  by  his  crafty  repre- 
sentations, surrounded  the  general's  tent,  and  fiercely  clam- 
oured for  the  release  of  the  prisoner.     When  Zeno  pre- 
sented himself  before  them,  their  blind  fury  was  displayed 
m  acts  of  the  most  daring  violence.     Closina  round,  with 
frightful  outcries,  they  menaced  him  with  immediate  death  ; 
and  a  sword  was  raised  by  some  unknown  hand,  which,  but 
for  the  good  proof  of  his  helmet,  would  have  descended 
fatally.     The  succour  of  his  ofltlcers  and  of  some  battalions 
which  still  preserved  better  discipline,  rescued  him  from  this 
new  peril ;  and  the  mutiny  was  terminated  bv  the  execution 
of  Its  chief  author,  who  was  conveyed  to  Venice,  where  he 
expiated  his  treason  between  the  Red  Columns. 

The  garrison,  frustrated  in  this  last  criminal  hope,  no 
longer  dared  to  supplicate  for  more  than  their  lives.     They 
pleaded  that  the  international  wars  had  hitherto  been  waged 
without  proceeding  to  the  ferocity  of  extermination ;  that 
prisoners  had  been  mutually  ransomed  or  exchanged,  and, 
latterly,  had  been  released  by  themselves  without  conditions : 
that  m  their  own  recent  capture  of  Chiozza,  few  acts  of 
violence^  had  been  perpetrated  at  all,  and  none  by  authority  : 
that  If  their  defence  had  been  obstinately  protracted,  it  was, 
nevertheless,  such  as  the  laws  of  war  amply  justified  ;  such 
as,  m  a  generous  enemy,  would  excite  applause  rather  than 
condemnation.      Finally,  that  now,  vanquished,  prostrate, 
and  unarmed,  they  threw  themselves  upon  the  clemency 
of  \  enice,  trusting  to  prayers  and  tears  for  that  immunity 
which  they  had  failed  to  gain  by  arms.     The  reply  to  their 
petitions  was  ambiguous,  and  couched  in  terms  httle  calcu- 
lated to  inspire  hope.     Chains,  they  were  told,  were  thcii 


V 


It 

■  ,* 


n 


I 


SURRENDER  OF  CHIOZZA. 


255 


immediate  portion ;  concerning  their  life  or  death,  the  signory 
would  decide  hereafter.     That  which  they  still  had  to  do 
must  be  done  quickly  !     Even  under  the  slight  chance  of 
mercy  thus  implied,  surrender  appeared  preferable  to  the 
certainty  of  perishing  yet  more  slowly  and  more  cruelly  by 
hunger,  for  bread  had  not  passed  their  lips  for  many  days. 
The  messengers  returned  silently  and  despondingly  to  the 
walls ;  a  flag  was  raised  on  the  summit  of  a  lofly  tower,  as 
a  signal  to  Marullb,  who,  in  obedience  to  it,  bore    ^^^^  ^ 
to  land  ;  when  it  was  suddenly  lowered,  and  the  ad- 
miral, understanding  the  intended  announcement,  retired  to 
Fossone.     The  gates  were  opened,  the  garrison  surrendered 
at  discretion,  and  the  besiegers  rushed  in  to  pillage  a  city, 
which  Venice,  if  she  had  retained  the  power,  would  have 
saved  from  spoliation,  as  a  peculiar  of  the  Dogado.   Nineteen 
galleys  and  about  four  thousand  three  hundred  prisoners 
were  the  sad  wreck  of  the  gallant  armament  which  had 
occupied  Chiozza  for  ten  months,  and  had  defended  it  for 
seven.     After  the  distribution  of  the  spoil  and  the  disband- 
ment  of  the  mercenaries,  the  doge  with  his  triumphant 
host  re-entered  Venice  in  the  Bucentaur,  on  the   1st  of 
July;*   leaving   Chiozza  under  the   administration   of  a 

podesta.  ^       i.       i  r 

The  war  lingered  on  for  nearly  a  year  after  the  close  ot 
this  memorable  siege  ;    but  during   the  remainder  of  its 
course  we  shall  look  in  vain  for  the  adventurous  and  ro- 
mantic character,  the  rapid  and  extraordinary  fluctuations 
which  have  heretofore  m;irked  its  events.     Pisani  died  on 
shipboard,  off  the  coast  of  Puglia,  before  its  conclusion ;  and 
his   remains,  having  been   embalmed,  were   conveyed  to 
Venice,  for  interment  in  the  church  of  St.  Antonio.     The 
announcement  of  his  death  was  received  with  universal 
mouniinw  ;  for  so  beloved  was  this  great  captain,  that  each 
citizen  appeared  to  have  lost  in  him  a  friend;  and  the 
remembrance  of  his  conciliating  gentleness,  his  unblem- 
ished integrity,  his  patience  under  injury,  and  his  generous 
forgetfulness  of  wrong,  endeared  him  to  the  remembrance 
of  his  countrymen,  not  less  than  his  matchless  bravery  and 


*  Galeazzo  Gataro  (361).  in  opposition  to  every  other  authority,  accuses 
Contarini  of  perjury,  and  slates,  that  in  violation  of  his  solemn  oath,  he 
letumed  to  Venice  on  the  21st  of  April. 


DISTRESS  OF  CARLO  ZENo's  FLT.V.T. 


nAXtjn  7.ENO  RETURNS  TO  VENICE. 


256 


DISTRESS  OF  CARLO  ZENo's  FLEET. 


w 


his  unexampled  senices,  which  had  so  largely  contributed 
to  enhance  their  national  glory. 

The  general  voice  proclaimed  Zeno  his  successor ;  and, 
as  If  the^mantle  of  Pisani  was  to  convey  his  fortunes  as  well 
as  his  office  to  Its  inheritor,  scarcely  was  the  new  possessor 
invested  with  it  before  upon  him  also  fell  the  ingratitude 
of  his   country.     His  station  was  fixed  off  Zara.     That 
city,    recently  and    strongly  fortified,   and  defended  by  a 
numerous  and  well-appointed  garrison,  forbade  all  hope  of 
successful  assault;  and  IVIaruflb,  safe  in  its  harbour  and 
under  its  guns,  obstinately  refused  every  provocation  to 
Dattle.     Zeno  s  sole  resource  was  to  watch  his  immoveable 
enemy,  and  by  cruising  round  the  port,  at  least  to  prevent 
O^j    his  escape.     Such  a  service,  at  all  times  vexatious, 
was  now  rendered  far  more  than  usually  so,  by  the  late- 
ness of  the  season,  the  consequent  boisterousness  of  the 
weather,  and,  above  all,  by  deficiency  of  equipment.     Zeno's 
squadron,  which  had  been  hastily  despatched  on  an  especial 
service,  was  inadequately  provisioned   for  a  tedious  block- 
ade;  winter  had  commenced  early,  and  some  rude  storms 
had  shat  ered  and  dispersed  the  convoys  upon  which  Zeno 
depended  for  revictualling  his  exhausted  fleet ;  bread  was 
wholly  wantmg,  and  during  fifteen  days  the  mariners  were 
supported  on  scanty  rations  of  salted  meat— a  food  which 
owing  to  the  comparative  shortness  of  medisval  vovaaes' 
had  not  yet  become  the  staple  provision  of  a  sailor's  taMe! 
1  heir  sufferings  were  so  acute,  that  Uttle   surprise  could 
be  felt  at  the  murmurs  raised  by  the  crews;  yet  it  was  not 
till  he  became  doubtful  of  their  obedience  that  Zeno  wrote 
home,  expressing  the  necessity  of  a  recall.     Venice  herself 
at  the  moment,  was  enduring  almost  equal  privation,  for  the 
rage   of  war   or   the  deficiency  of  harvest   had   rendered 
scarcity  general  through  the  north  of  Italy.     Unable  to  fur- 
nish supplies  to  the  fleet  abroad,  and  equally  unable  to  sup- 
port an  increased  population  should  it   return  home,  the 
fiignory  did  no  more  than  order  a  change  in  the  scene  of 
operations.     Zeno  was  instructed  to  quit  the  blockade  of 
Zara,  and  to  commence  the  siege  of  Marano,  a  town  situated 
m  the  marshes  at  the  embouchure  of  the  Tagliamento,  and 
lumishing  a  useful  outpost  against  the  territory  of  the  Pa- 
triarch of  Aquileia.   Few  places  were  more  difficult  of  access, 
or  more  strongly  protected  by  nature  ;  it  was  approached 


/ 


CARLO  ZENO  RETURNS  TO  VENICE. 


257 


from  the  sea  by  a  narrow  channel,  two  leagues  in  length, 
and  nowhere  of  greater  depth  than  would  admit  a  vessel  of 
the  lightest  draught  ;  this  single  inlet  was  moreover  dry  at 
low  water.  Zeno  carefully  reconnoitred  the  position  ;  and, 
convinced  of  its  impracticability,  he  generously  determmed  to 
encounter  the  whole  weight  of  the  senate's  wrath  m  his 
own  person,  rather  than  to  sacrifice  the  lives  mtrusted  to 
him  in  an  assault  which  he  perceived  must  be  hopeless  ; 
and  accordingly  he  set  sail  for  Venice.  .  ,         »        i 

The  council' learned  his   arrival  with  astonishment  and 
indicrnation  ;    forbade  his  entrance  within  the  La.gtine,  on 
pain'of  death  ;  and  deputed  two  of  their  body  to  command 
him  to  await  further  orders  on  the  coast  of  Dalmatia.     Zeno 
reminded  them  of  the  hazards  of  the  season,  and  persisted 
in  his  demand  for  admission  to  the  harbour  :  yet  they  con- 
sumed three  days  in  angry  deliberation  ;  and  but    or  the 
deep  murmurs  of  the  seamen,  which  found  a  ready  echo 
from  the  populace  of  the  capital,  they  would  have  persevered 
in  refusal.     At  length  Zeno  obtained  leave  to  enter  ;  and 
scarcely  had  he  gained  his  moorings,  when,  as  if  for  the  ex- 
press confirmation  of  his  foresight,  a  tempest  so  violent  arose, 
that  had  the  fleet  been  still  excluded,  not  a  ship  would  have 
escaped  destruction .     On  landing,  the  admiral  and  his  prin- 
cipal officers  were  introduced  to  the   hall  of  the  council, 
where  his  manly  and  forcible  statements  were  answered  by 
insults,  by  reproaches,  and  even  by  threats.     Zeno  listened 
for  the  most  part  in  proud  or  temperate  silence,  and  but  once 
offered  a  reply.     When  his  greeting  of  welcome  was^  taunt- 
ingly answered  by  "You  are  welcome  as  you  deserve,  —"It 
as°we  deserve,"  he  said,  "  then  are  we  assuredly  welcome.  * 
Not  so  one  of  his  captains  ;  who,  touched  by  the  injustice 
offered  to  his  chief,  boldly  defended  him.     "  If  there  be  any 
blame,"  he  said,  "  it  belongs  to  the  government,  which  has 
issued  inconsiderate  orders  ;  not  to  the  wiser  officer  who  has 
demurred  obeying  them."     The  fury  of  the  council  at  this 
honest  but  unseasonable  sally  forgot  all  bounds  ;  the  crimi- 
nals, as  they  were  termed,  were  ordered  to  withdraw  ;  a 
vehement  and  tumultuous  debate  ensued  ;  and  a  majority 
of  voices  pronounced  for  imprisonment.     Already  was  this 
ill-judged  and  inequitable  vote  more  than  suspected  by  the 

*  »  Eos  ita  venire  ut  digni  forentr    "  henp.  pro/ecto  yenimus  si  ut 
dignisumusvcnimus.'^—Vita  C.  Zeni.  apiwi  Muraton.  xix.  3M. 

Y  2 


aSait.  ^toijfeaaiiitigfe  iete^fel 


258 


FRESH  ATTEMPT  ON  MARANO. 


CESSION  OF  THE  TREVISANO. 


259 


258 


FRESH  ATTEMPT  ON  MARANO. 


anxious  throng  assembled  round  the  palace-gates,  and  signs 
not  to  be  mistaken   announced   the  storm  about  to  burst 
upon  the  devoted  council  ;  when  Zeno,  desirous  to  calm 
the  popular  excitation,  by  showing  that  he  was  still  free,  re- 
entered their  hall  of  audience,  unsummoned.     Addressing 
the  counsellors,  he  expressed  conviction  that  the  presenci 
of  a  stranger  was  unfitting  during  their  deliberations,  and 
that  he  would  therefore  withdraw,  and  return   whenever 
they  should  send  for  him.     The  council,  yet  more  enraged 
at  this  frank  exercise  of  private  judgment,  which  they  pro- 
lessed  to  consider  as  a  fresh  act  of  disobedience,  haughtily 
commanded    him   to   remain,  and    showed   indications   of 
employing  force  if  he  refused.     No  longer  able  to  control 
his  just  impatience,  he  indignantly  demanded  whether  they 
wished   that   day  should   terminate   the  existence  of  the 
republic.     "  I  look  through  your  benches,"  he  exclaimed, 
without  being  able  to  recognise  a  single  individual  among 
you  who  has  shed  one  drop  of  blood  for  his  country.     Tur^ 
to  these  and  to  myself,  on  the  other  hand  :    We  have  fought  • 
We  have  conquered  ;    We  have  borne  the  heat  and  bufden 
ot  war.     Our  fortunes,  our  limbs,  our  lives  have  been  de- 
voted tor  your  protection  :  and  in  return  for  the  countless 
lorms  of  death  which  we  have  encountered,  as  a  recom- 
pense  for   our     toils,    wounds,    and    perils,   we    are   now 
menaced  with  chains  and  dungeons.     Never,  never  let  the 
republic,    saved    hy  our  activity,   be  dishonoured  by    your 
ingratitude  !     Debate  now,  and   decide  according  to  your 
pleasure  !»     VVith  these  words,  in  spite  of  the  violent  excla- 
mations  of  the  oligarchs,  he  quitted  the  assembly;  crossed, 
wnid  the  applauses  of  the  thousands  who  filled  the  piazza,  to 
fet.  Mark  s;  offered  his  devotions  at  one  of  the  altars,  and 
retired  to  his  own  house. 

The  government  had  placed  itself  in  a  false  position. 
1  o  punish  Zeno,  if  it  regarded  its  own  existence,  was  mani- 
festly impossible  ;  wholly  to  pass  over  his  disobedience  was 
to  surrender  its  authority  ;  and  accordingly,  as  a  means  of 
extrication  trom  this  embarrassment,  fresh  orders  for  the  siege 
of  Marano  were  issued  ;  but  instead  of  the  galleys  hitherto 
destined  for  the  service,  a  flotilla  of  light  boats  was  equipped 
and  launched.  Zeno's  opinion  of  the  folly  of  the  project  still 
remamed  unchanged :  nevertheless,  having  offered  strong 
remonstrances,  which  proved  ineffectual,  he  did  not  hesitatl 


f 

r 


CESSION  OF  THE  TREVISANO. 


259 


to  resume  the  command  thus  forced  upon  him.  His  boats 
entered  the  canal  of  Marano  with  the  tide,  and  the  troops 
were  disembarked,  and  pressed  a  long  and  hazardous  assault 
upon  the  town.  While  animating  them  at  the  foot  of  the 
ditch,  Zeno  was  wounded  by  a  stone  discharged  from  the 
walls,  and  fell  senseless;  yet  on  his  recovery  he  again 
placed  himself  at  the  head  of  a  storming  column.  But  the 
tide  by  this  time  had  retreated  and  borne  with  it  his  boats  ; 
the  loss  of  the  Venetians  had  been  severe ;  the  patriarch 
was  advancing  with  fresh  troops,  and  it  was  not  without 
great  peril  and  difficulty  that  Zeno  retreated  through  the 
marshes,  and  regained  his  flotilla.  The  senate  had  ob- 
tained his  obedience,  and,  perhaps,  it  did  not  lament  his 

All  parties  were  now  fatigued  with  a  war  in  which  all 
had  been  losers.  On  the  continent,  Treviso  still  held  ^  ^^ 
out  for  Venice;  but  it  was  blockaded  by  an  oyer-  jggj^ 
powering  force,  and  sorely  distressed  by  famine. 
Stores,  men,  and  treasure  were  equally  wanting  in  the 
capital ;  and  the  republic,  conscious  of  her  incapacity  to 
relieve  or  to  retain  her  possessions  in  the  March,  wisely 
resolved  to  profit  to  the  utmost  by  their  abandonment.  The 
bitter  enmity  which  Carrara,  the  author  of  the  present 
contest,  had  exhibited,  his  ambitious  temper,  his  crafty 
policy,  and  the  close  vicinity  of  his  hereditary  dominions 
rendered  him  the  most  dangerous  power  under  which  the 
Trevisano  ciuld  pass;  and  in  ceding  this  territory,  the 
object  of  so  much  pride  during  more  than  forty  years'  sway, 
the  signory  felt  that  not  only  their  shame  but  their  loss  also 
would^  be  more  than  doubled,  if  these  contributed  to  the 
aggrandizement  of  the  Lord  of  Padua.  The  Duke  of  Aus- 
tria was  a  prince  of  far  greater  power;  and  though  to 
invite  him  as  :i  neighbour  to  their  very  borders  was  a  step 
not  unattended  with  danger,  yet  it  was  a  danger  in  every 
way  far  inferior  to  that  which  they  anticipated  from  Car- 
rara. The  Austrian  hereditary  states  were  remote ;  and 
it  was  possible  that  Leopold,  while  he  averted  the  progress 
of  their  most  inveterate  foe,  might  never  be  able  firmly  to 
establish  his  own  sway  in  Italy.  To  him,  therefore,  in  the 
first  instance,  the  cession  of  the  Trevisano  was  offered ; 
and  when,  having  eagerly  accepted  the  proposal,  he 
marched  ten  thousand  men  to  take  possession  of        *^' 


C' 


260 


NOBLES  OF  THE  WAR  OF  CHIOZZA. 


his  new  territory,  the  Venetians  despatched  an  embassy  of 
congratulation  on  his  acquirement  of  a  dominion  virtually 
wrested  from  themselves.     We  shall  perceive  that  the  wiles 
of  Carrara  rendered  this  sovereignty  but  nominal,  and  even 
in    name  but  short-lived.     The  presence  of  an  Austrian 
force  to  dispute  a  territory  which  had  almost  become  his 
own  by  right  of  conquest  could  not  but  alarm  him ;  and 
the  secession  of  the  King  of  Hungary  from  any  active 
share  in  the  league  which  he  had  formed  contributed  to 
awaken  an  anxious  desire  for  peace.     At  this  juncture, 
Amadeus  VI.,  Count  of  Savoy,  jointly  with  the  republic  of 
Florence,  proposed  a  mediation  between  the  contending 
parties,  and  a  congress  was  assembled  at   Turin.     The 
treaty   was   finally   concluded  on  the  8th  of  August,  on 
the  following  basis  :  That  each  republic  should  retain  its 
conquests,   excepting   those  within  the  Gulf  of  Venice, 
which  Genoa  should  restore  :  that  each  should  renounce 
its  commerce  at  the  mouth  of  the  Don  :  that  Tenedos  should 
be  evacuated  by  the  Venetians,  and  surrendered  to  the 
occupation  of  the  Duke  of  Savoy,  who  at  the  close  of  two 
years  should  demolish  its  fortifications,  before  its  ultimate 
allotuient  was  decided  ;  each  republic  agreeing  to  place  one 
hundred  thousand  crowns  in  the  hands  of  Florence,  as  a 
security  for  the  fulfilment  of  this  condition :  that  Carrara 
should  restore  to  Venice  Cavanzero  and  Moranzeno,  and 
raze  all  his  newly  constructed  forts  on  the  frontiers  of  the 
Dogado  :  that  he  should  receive  in  return  the  Castle  of  Cu- 
rano,  and  be  released  from  all  demands  of  arrears  conceived 
to  be  owing  before  the  war.     The  boundary  line  between 
the  Venetian  and  Paduan  territories  was  to  be  regulated  by 
arbitrators  appointed  by  the  two  mediating  powers. 

There  remains  only  the  pleasing  task  of  recording  the 
honourable  discharge  of  the  promises  which  the  Venetian 
government  had  held  out  as  encouragements  to  patriotism 
during  this  memorable  contest.  Thirty  families  were  en- 
nobled ;  and  the  list  which  is  preserved  to  us  of  the  names 
and  conditions  of  the  persons  elevated  proves  beyond 
doubt  the  integrity  of  the  electors.  At  the  head  is  placed 
Giacopo  de'  Cavalli,  the  Veronese,  who  had  commanded 
the  army  of  the  republic  ;  and  among  the  others  were  found 
the  grand  chancellor  of  Venice,  two  noble  Candiotes,  a 
banker,  five  ordinary  tradesmen,  six  who  bore  the  simple 


I 


/ 


CONDITION  OF  THE  TWO  REPUBLICS.         261 

style  of  citizens,  one  called  a  merchant,  five  to  whose  names 
no  title  is  appended,  and  eight  artisans.  No  more  illus- 
trious  source  of  nobility  can  be  imagmed;  and  it  is  to  be 
wished  that  all  the  families  thus  funded  had  continued  to 
exist  while  the  republic  itself  endured.  But  the  Abbe 
Lauffier,  who  was  well  acquainted  with  the  society  and  the 
internal  constitution  of  Venice,  and  who  wrote  not  quite 
four  centuries  after  the  occurrence  of  the  events  which  we 
have  been  relating,  tells  us,  that  at  that  moment  scarcely 
seven,  or  at  the  utmost  eight  representatives  survived  ot 
the  nobles  of  the  Genoese  war,— I  Nobili  della  Uuebba 
Di  Genoa. 


CHAPTER  IX. 

FROM  A.  D.  1382  to  A.  D.  1402. 

Acauisition  of  the  Trevisano  by  Carrara— Antonio  della  Scala— Early 
Srv  of  Giovanni  Galeaxzo  Visconti-His  Allmnce  w.ih  Venice 
against  Carrara- Abdication  of  Francesco  Vecchio-Surrender  of 
pidua  by  Francesco  Novelio-He  is  treacherously  detained  Prsoner 
-Jealousy  between  Venice  and  Milan-Escape  of  Francesco  Novello 
-His  romantic  Adventures-He  recovers  P^dua-His  rnagn.ficent 
Entertainment  at  Venice-Death  of  Francesco  Vecchio-Aflairs  of 
the  E«st-Bajazel-New  Crusade-Fatal  Bauie  of  Nicopolis-Erec- 
tioDof  Milan  into  a  Dutchy-Gonzaga  of  Mantua-Domeslic  Events 
in  Venice- Visit  of  the  Emperor  Robert-Death  of  Giovanni  Galeazio 
Visconti. 


A.  D. 


DOGES. 


1382.     Lxiii. 

LXlV. 

1400.       Lxv. 


Andrea  Contarini. 

MlCHAEl.E  MOROSINI. 

Antonio  Veniero. 

MlCHAELE   StENO. 


The  close  of  the  great  struggle  which  we  have  been 
relating  left  each  of  the  combatants  almost  equally  ex- 
hausted ;  both  had  suffered  deeply  under  defeat ;  neither 
had  been  a  permanent  gainer  by  victory.  The  short  occu- 
pation of  Chiozza  had  cost  the  Genoese  a  fleet  and  an 


i 


262 


MICHAELE  MOROSINI. 


arniy.  The  purchase  of  peace  by  the  "Venetians,  even  after 
their  final  success,  was  not  attained  at  a  less  price  than  the 
cession  of  Tenedos,  and  of  the  sole  province  which  they 
possessed  on  terra  jirma.  Nevertheless,  from  the  moment 
of  the  treaty  of  Turin,  we  shall  perceive  Genoa,  though 
her  power  was  apparently  increased  by  it,  rapidly  verging 
to  decline  ;  while  Venice  retrieved  her  losses,  extended  her 
commerce,  and  maintained  her  independent  sovereignty 
unshaken. 

Contarini,  worn  by  age  and  the  toils  of  a  laborious  cam- 
paign, survived  but  a  few  months  after  the  signature  of 
peace ;  and  when  Carlo  Zeno  was  proposed  as  his  succes- 
sor, the  full  spirit  of  Venetian  policy  manifested  itself  in 
hiff  rejection.  It  was  not  on  account  of  his  virtues,  his 
talents,  or  his  glory  that  the  republic  wished  to  select  her 
prince.  On  the  contrary,  those  qualities  formed  so  many 
barriers  against  the  elevation  of  their  possessor  ;  and  if 
Zeno  had  been  less  brave,  less  noble-minded,  and  less  gene- 
rous, he  might,  perhaps,  have  attained  the  unenviable  dis- 
tinction of  the  ducal  bonnet.     The  choice  of  the  electors 

was  directed  to  Michaele  Morosini,  a  noble  of  illus- 
Tq«9     trious  birth,  derived  from  a  stock  which,  coeval  with 

the  republic  itself,  had  produced  the  conqueror  of 
Tyre,  given  a  queen  to  Hungary,  and  more  than  one  doge 
to  Venice.  The  brilliancy  of  this  descent  was  tarnished  in 
the  present  chief  representative  of  the  family  by  the  most 
base  and  grovelling  avarice  :  for  at  that  moment  in  the 
recent  war  at  which  all  other  Venetians  were  devoting  their 
whole  fortunes  to  the  ser\'ice  of  the  state,  Morosini  sought 
in  the  distresses  of  his  country  an  opening  for  his  own 
private  enrichment ;  and  employed  his  ducats,  not  in  the 
assistance  of  the  national  wants,  but  in  speculating  upon 
houses  which  were  brought  to  market  at  a  price  far  beneath 
their  real  value,  and  which,  upon  the  return  of  peace, 
ensured  the  purchaser  a  fourfold  profit.  "  What  matters 
the  fall  of  Venice  to  me,  so  as  I  fall  not  together  with  her !" 
was  his  selfish  and  sordid  reply  to  some  one  who  expressed 
surprise  at  the  transaction.  His  reign  was  but  of  short 
duration.  The  plague  swept  twenty  thousand  souls  from 
the  Lagune,  and  among  them  perished  Morosini,  after  he 
had  enjoyed  the  dogeship  not  more  than  four  months. 
Before  the  election  of  Antonio  Veniero,  Carrara  had  sue- 


I 


ALLIANCE  WITH  ANTONIO  DELLA  SCALA.      263 

ceeded  in  his  views  upon  the  Trevisano,  after  employing 
every  artifice  which  the  subtlety  of  an  experienced  diplo- 
matist could  suggest  to  delay  its  occupation  by  the  troops 
of  Leopold.  Whenever  they  presented  themselves  before 
any  town  of  the  province,  they  were  amused  by  promises 
and  protestations  ;  countless  difi[iculties  on  points  of  form 
were  raised  as  to  immediate  surrender ;  gold  was  lavished 
on  the  Austrian  commanders  ;  the  Padurn  garrisons  were 
strengthened;  and  in  order  to  gain  yet  fuither  time,  nego- 
tiations were  sedulously  opened  with  the  duke.  Leopold 
was  ill  prepared  to  win  by  arms  possession  of  the  territory 
which  had  been  peaceably  ceded  to  him  ;  for  other  cares, 
nearer  home,  distracted  his  attention  and  his  forces.  His 
treasury  was  exhausted ;  and  he  gladly,  therefore,  listened 
to  the  offer  of  80,000  ducats  made  by  Carrara,  for  a  province 
far  from  his  hereditary  states,  and  in  which  he  felt  little 
hope  of  permanently  establishing  himself. 

Venice  was  deeply  mortified  at  this  failure  of  a  project 
which  had  been  considered  a  master-stroke  of  policy,  and 
another  neighbouring  power  was  no  less  displeased  with 
this  extension  of  the  dominions  of  Carrara.  Antonio  della 
Scala,  a  bastard  of  the  noble  house  whose  name  he  bore, 
had  won  his  way  to  the  throne  of  Verona  by  the  assassina- 
tion of  his  brother ;  and  he  now  viewed  with  a  suspicious 
eye  the  increasing  ascendency  of  Padua.  The  murder  of 
his  brother  was  not  the  only  crime  charged  against  him  ; 
for  in  order  to  exterminate  a  family  which  by  its  preten- 
sions might  endanger  his  throne,  he  had  put  to  a  death  of 
horrible  torture  the  mistress  and  children  of  his  first  victim, 
falsely  imputing  to  them  the  unnatural  deed  of  blood  which 
himself  had  committed.  Carrara  openly  testified  his  abhor- 
rence of  this  complicated  wickedness  ;  and  personal  resent- 
ment on  that  account,  no  less  than  ambition,  stimulated 
Delia  Scala,  to  project  the  overthrow  of  the  Lord  of  Padua. 
The  promise  of  a  tempting  subsidy  secured  his  alliance 
with  Venice  ;  and  he  concluded  a  secret  treaty^  by  which, 
in  consideration  of  the  receipt  of  25,000  florins  per  month, 
he  agreed  to  employ  his  whole  forces  in  the  proposed  war, 
to  strip  Carrara  of  his  dominions,  and  to  permit  the  reoccu- 
pation  of  the  Trevisano  by  the  Venetians. 

The  arms  of  Delia  Scala  were  unsuccessful,  and  he  was 
twice  signally  defeated,  with  grievous  loss,  at  Brentella  and 


< 


t'A.*)fl-iji>j  iV>>: 


264 


GIOVANNI  GALEAZZO  VISCONTI. 


f 


VTcnnVTT  nBTAlNS  LOMBARDY  AND  VERONA.  265 


Ill  ] 


264 


GIOVANNI  GALEAZZO  VISCONTL 


at  Castegnaro.*  Venice,  during  these  transactions,  had 
supported  him,  not  by  troops  but  by  subsidies.  Yet,  although 
she  forbore  from  appearing  openly  in  the  field,  the  mystery 
of  her  alliance  was  soon  penetrated  by  Carrara,  who  gained 
by  his  bribes  the  assistance  of  an  avvogadore  and  of  a  mem- 
ber of  the  XL.,  and  thus  obtained  full  revelation  of  the 
secrets  of  the  great  council.  The  discovery  of  this  intrigue 
justly  consigned  the  traitors  to  the  executioner ;  and  at  the 
same  time  compelled  the  Lord  of  Padua  to  strengthen  him- 
self against  the  expected  vengeance  of  the  republic.  For 
this  purpose  he  looked  around  among  the  neighbouring 
princes  for  an  ally  sufficiently  powerful  to  ensure  his  safety  ; 
and  from  the  superior  advantages  which  one,  more  espe- 
cially, appeared  to  offer,  it  was  not  probable  that  his  choice 
would  loner  remain  undecided. 

The  new  actor  who  now  appeared  upon  the  political 
theatre  not  a  little  increased  the  intricacy  of  its  drama  ; 
and  though  during  the  first  scenes  he  espoused  the  interests 
of  Carrara,  in  the  catastrophe  he  contributed  mainly  to  the 
events  which  prepared  his  fall.  Towards  the  close  of  the 
preceding  century,  the  family  of  Visconti  had  established 
itself  in  the  sovereignty  of  Milan,  which  it  had  since  main- 
tained, at  first,  owing  to  the  great  qualities  of  those  by  whom 
it  was  swayed,  and  latterly,  by  their  dissimulation  and  fear- 
lessness of  crime.  Giovanni  Galeazzo  Visconti,  by  a  mar- 
riage with  a  daughter  of  France,  claimed  the  title  of  Comte 
de  Vertu,  a  small  fief  in  Champagne  ;  and  on  the  death  of 
his  father  in  1378,  he  succeeded  to  the  government  of  a 
moiety  of  Lombardy,  and  fixed  his  court  at  Pavia.  His 
uncle,  Bemabo,  with  whom  he  shared  the  sceptre,  resided 
at  Milan,  and  from  an  anxiety  to  increase  the  portions  of 
his  children  by  the  heritage  of  his  nephew,  he  organized  a 
series  of  conspiracies  against  his  person  and  power,  which 
Galeazzo  by  his  wariness  quietly  frustrated,  without  be- 
traying that  he  had  discovered  them.  By  an  affectation  of 
devotion,  Galeazzo  succeeded  in  concealing  from  his  uncle 
both  his  resentment  and  his  intentions  of  revenge  :  he  ap- 
peared in  public  attended  by  ecclesiastics  ;  a  rosary  was 

*  Galeazzo  Gataro,  apiid  Muratori.  xvii.  579.  In  the  frequent  use  of 
Gataro  made  in  the  remainder  of  this  chapter  a  translation  by  Mr.  David 
Syme  (Edinburgh,  1830)  has  been  much  employed.  Our  references  are 
to  the  original. 


\ 


t 


» 


w 


\    , 


bv 


i 


VISCONTI  OBTAINS  LOMBARDY  AND  VERONA.  265 

never  absent  from  his  hands  ;  his  days  were  employed  in 
pilgrimages,  his  nights  in  penance.  The  suspicions  of 
Bemabo,  if  indeed  he  ever  entertained  any,  were  lulled  to 
rest  by  this  semblance  of  superstitious  weakness  ;  and  he 
heard,  without  apprehension,  that  his  nephew  was  approach- 
ing Milan,  on  a  visit  to  a  chapel  of  the  Virgin  near  the 
Lago  Maggiore,  though  his  progress  was  accompanied  by 
an  escort  of  more  than  customary  numbers.  Part,  indeed, 
of  Galeazzo's  policy  had  been  to  display  cowardice  as  well 
as  superstition  ;  and  under  the  pretext  of  dread  of  assassi- 
nation, he  had  surrounded  himself  with  a  powerful  body- 
guard. With  a  train  of  two  thousand  horse,  he  now  moved 
on  towards  the  capital  of  Lombardy,  and  Bernabo,  with  his 
two  eldest  sons  and  a  few  attendants  of  state,  rode  out  to 
salute  him,  intimating,  with  a  smile,  to  those  who  cautioned 
him,  that  his  nephew  was  too  much  of  a  saint  to  meditate 
treachery.  Scarcely,  however,  had  the  first  greetings 
passed,  when  Galeazzo  made  a  sign  to  Giacopo  dal  Verme 
and  others  of  his  confidential  followers,  who  surrounded 
Bernabo,  seized  the  bridle  of  his  mule,  cut  his  sword  from 
his  belt,  and  hurried  him  with  his  sons  to  prison.  His 
oppression  had  weaned  from  him  the  affection  of  his  sub- 
jects, and  his  allies  regarded  his  fall  with  indifference  :  no 
attempt,  therefore,  was  made  for  his  deliverance  during  a 
captivity  of  seven  months ;  in  the  course  of  which  the 
strength  of  his  constitution  or  of  his  antidotes  resisted 
frequent  attempts  which  were  made  to  despatch  him  by 
poison,  till,  at  length,  m  the  close  of  1385,  he  became  its 
victim.  Galeazzo,  having  peaceably  united  both  divisions 
of  Lombardy  under  his  single  rule,  threw  aside  the  mask  of 
religion  which  he  had  hitherto  successfully  worn,  and  aban- 
doned himself  to  projects  of  ambition. 

The  troubled  condition  of  the  states  which  bordered  upon 
his  own  dominions  afforded  rich  promise  of  gain  to  Vis- 
conti ;  and  by  fomenting  the  differences  between  Padua  and 
Verona,  he  reasonably  hoped  to  make  both  of  them  his  prey. 
After  the  defeat  of  Delia  Scala  at  Brentella,  he  had  secretly 
offered  his  alliance,  at  the  same  moment,  to  each  of  the  con- 
tending parties  ;  and  although  at  the  time  each  had  avoided 
the  snare,  nevertheless  Carrara,  now  flushed  by  his  second 
victory,  thought  such  succour  alone  was  wanting  to  com- 
plete the  total  subjugation  of  his  enemy.    A  treaty  was 

Vol.  L— Z 


266 


ALLUNCE  AGAINST  CARRARA. 


I  T 


ABDICATION  OF  FRANCESCO  tECCHIO.         267 


266 


ALLIANCE  AGAINST  CARRARA. 


lu  > 


accordingly  concluded  for  the   partition   of  Delia  Scala*s 
dominions,  by  which  Gaieazzo  was  to  retain  Verona,  and 

Vicenza  was  to  fall  to  Carrara.     The  conquest  was 
1387     ^^^^^^b"  effected  ;  but  Visconti,  once  in  possession  of 

both  cities,  refused  to  transfer  the  stipulated  portion 
to  his  ally. 

Delia  Scala,  ruined  by  these  losses,  found  an  asylum  in 
Venice,  and  in  exchange  for  his  principality,  received  the 
empty  honour  of  enrolment  in  her  golden  book.  Visconti 
was  the  sole  gainer  by  his  overthrow,  which  he  considered 
only  as  a  prelude  to  yet  more  important  successes.  In 
order  to  secure  his  ulterior  objects,  he  entered  into  secret 
negotiations  with  Venice,  the  object  of  which  was  the  spolia- 
tion of  his  Paduan  ally ;  and  when  Carrara  implored  the 
aid  of  the  signory  to  compel  Visconti  to  the  fulfilment  of 
the  conditions  of  his  treaty,  he  was  answered  by  a  cold 
refusal,  speedily  succeeded  by  open  hostilities.  The  repub- 
lic, indeed,  had  little  interest  in  the  aggrandizement  of 
either  of  these  dangerous  neighbours,  but,  in  her  choice 
of  alliance,  a  connexion  with  Visconti  appeared  far  the 
most  profitable  of  the  two.  His  territories  were  sufficiently 
remote  from  the  Laffune  to  render  them  difficult  of  conquest 
in  case  of  war,  while  those  of  Carrara  lay  immediately  at 
hand,  and  from  his  comparative  weakness  seemed  of  easier 
attainment.  It  was  agreed  that  the  Trevisano  should  revert 
to  Venice,  and  that  certain  forts  on  the  borders  of  the  La- 
gune^  which  disquieted  her,  should  be  destroyed  ;  in  return 
for  which  benefits  she  engaged  to  furnish  a  small  contin- 
gent. Visconti,  upon  whom  it  was  manifest  that  the  chief 
military  burden  was  to  fall,  sought  more  for  the  concurrence 
of  the  republic  in  designs  which  she  might  otherwise  impede, 
than  for  her  active  co-operation,  and  he  willingly  provided 
the  requisite  material.  As  a  pledge  of  his  fidelity,  and  an 
assurance  that  he  was  not  about  to  repeat  towards  Venice 
a  fraud  similar  to  that  which  he  had  recently  practised  on 
the  Lord  of  Padua,  he  solicited  that  Carlo  Zeno  might  be 
allowed  to  enter  his  service,  and  he  confided  to  him  the 
government  of  Milan. 

It  was  in  June,   1388,  that  the  unfortunate  Francesco 

A.  D.     ^f  <^c^io,  surrounded  by  traitors  in  his  cabinet,  and 

1388.    ^^J^^^.*^^  '^y  every  foreign  power  to  which  he  applied 

for  aid,  summoned  his  council  and  laid  before  it  the 

hopelessness  of  his  affairs.     He  was  hei^med  in,  he  said, 


ABDICATION  OF  FRANCESCO  VECCHIO.         267 

between  the  arms  of  Lombardy  and  Venice.  The  Marquis 
d'Este,  the  Lord  of  Mantua,  and  the  city  Udino  had  coa- 
lesced with  his  yet  mightier  enemies.  The  Marquis  of  Fer- 
rara  refused  a  passage  through  his  dominions  to  any  suc- 
cours which  Bologna,  Florence,  or  Rome  might  be  prevailed 
upon  to  send  him.  The  emperor  had  been  bought  by  Vis- 
conti ;  the  Dukes  of  Austria  and  Bavaria  demanded  a  larger 
subsidy  than  his  exhausted  treasury  could  furnish  ;  and, 
finally,  discontent  and  disaffection  pervaded  every  class  of 
his  own  subjects.  This  melancholy  picture  was  by  no 
means  overcharged,  and  long  and  tumultuous- debates  suc- 
ceeded its  representation  ;  for  scarcely  a  voice  in  the  coun- 
cil was  unbribed  by  Visconti.  Some  clamoured  for  the 
deposition  of  Francesco  Vecchio,  and  an  immediate  sur- 
render to  Milan  ;  others  proposed  that  he  should  be  deUv- 
ered  up  to  the  Venetians  ;  a  third  party,  and  it  was  sup- 
ported by  the  populace,  demanded  his  abdication,  and  the 
appointment  of  his  son  in  his  stead.  Nor  were  there  want- 
ing those  who  were  sufficiently  frontless  to  propose  violent 
measures  to  the  young  prince  ;  to  urge  him  to  throw  his 
aged  father  into  prison,  and  to  seize  upon  his  authority. 
Such  a  step,  they  assured  him,  would  conciliate  popularity 
at  home,  and  at  the  same  time  would  satisfy  both  the  Vene- 
tians and  Gaieazzo,  who  were  chiefly  animated  by  personal 
enmity  to  his  father.  Francesco  Novello,  who,  in  trying 
moments,  appears  never  to  have  been  wanting  in  generosity, 
in  affection,  or  in  courage,  indignantly  spumed  this  unnatu- 
ral proposal,  and  avowed  that  he  would  endure  any  ex- 
tremity of  fortune  rather  than  fail  in  duty  to  his  parent. 

After  two  days  passed  in  hot  contentions  among  the 
Paduan  leaders,  in  feebleness  and  vacillation  by  the  elder 
Carrara,  and  in  loud  expressions  of  disgust  and  sedition  by 
the  populace,  who  believed  that  they  were  about  to  be  sold, 
like  cattle,  to  Venice  or  to  Milan,  the  aged  prince  agreed 
to  the  proposed  abdication.  The  citizens  were  assembled, 
and  proceeded,  according  to  ancient  forms  in  the  days  of 
Paduan  freedom,  to  elect  four  anziani^  a  gonfaloniere  of 
justice,  and  a  syndic.  Before  this  tribunal  the  reasons 
which  induced  P^rancesco  Vecchio  to  resign  his  authority 
were  explained,  and  his  son  was  recommended  as  his  most 
fitting  successor.  The  baton,  the  gonfalon,  the  book  of 
statutes,  and  other  ensigns  of  power  were  deposited  in  the 


\ 


IM 


ifiii 


-aaffisa 


FRANCESCO  NOVELLO. 


268 


FRANCESCO  NOVELLO. 


hands  of  the  magistrates  ;  and  the  gmfalmiere^  having  ad- 
dressed a  few  laudatory  words  to  the  young  prince,  con- 
firmed his  investiture  by  the  presentation  of  these  insignia, 
and,  in  the  name  of  the  whole  people,  proclaimed  him  Cap- 
tain  and  Lord  of  Padua.  On  the  following  day,  the  30th 
of  June,  the  abdicated  prince  retired  to  Treviso,  of  which 
city  he  had  retamed  to  himself  the  sovereignty. 

On  the  morrow  of  his  accession,  Francesco  Novello  re- 
ceived two  trumpets  of  defiance  from  the  allied  camps.  He 
replied  to  Visconti  by  informing  him  of  the  recent  revolu- 
tion ;  adding,  that  the  defiance,  therefore,  could  not  be  in- 
tended for  him,  and  respectfully  commending  himself  to  his 
favour  and  protection.  To  Venice,  he  complained  of  the 
infraction  of  an  alliance  of  thirty  years,  and  professed  his 
desire  for  peace  with  all  men,  especially  with  their  republic. 
But  the  change  of  masters  in  Padua  had  produced  no  change 
of  hostile  sentiments  in  the  coalition  formed  against  her 
independence.  The  signory,  without  deigning  an  answer, 
commanded  the  envoy  immediately  to  quit  their  city  ;  and 
Visconti  sarcastically  expressed  his  opinion  that  the  policy 
of  the  Paduan  lords  would  still  remain  unaltered,  by  the 
application  of  one  of  those  expressive  proverbs  in  which 
Italy  abounds,  "  Sons  of  cats  are  fond  of  mice  !" 

Few  events  of  interest  marked  the  ensuing  campaign. 
The  allies  advanced  under  Giacomo  dal  Verme  with  unin- 
terrupted success  ;  for  treason  was  rife  in  the  camp  as  well 
as  in  the  councils  of  their  foe.  Carrara  was  not  wanting 
to  himself  either  in  the  field  or  in  his  capital ;  but  the  per- 
fidy of  his  troops  rendered  his  own  bravery  unavailing,  and 
the  disaflfection  of  his  subjects,  heightened  by  their  suffer- 
ings and  their  fears,  was  not  to  be  conciliated  by  the  lavish 
sacrifices  which  he  made  in  surrendering  his  private  funds 
for  the  payment  of  debts  contracted  by  his  father.  By  No- 
vember all  was  lost ;  Padua  was  closely  beleaguered,  the 
surrounding  country  pillaged  and  laid  waste.  The  murmurs 
of  the  citizens  were  but  a  prelude  to  more  open  denuncia- 
tions by  the  council,  and  Carrara  was  at  length  informed 
that  his  opposition  would  be  vain,  his  reclamation  unheeded, 
and  that  the  city  would  be  surrendered  to  Visconti.  During 
the  brief  communication  with  his  family,  he  was  consoled 
and  supported  by  the  noble  spirit  of  his  lady.  Madonna 
Taddea,  a  daughter  not  unworthy  of  the  illustrious  house 


m 


\ 


BOTH  THE  CARRARAS  PRISONERS. 


269 


of  Este,  from  which  she  sprang.  "  I  think,  my  lord,"  said 
this  high-minded  princess,  when  her  opinion  was  asked, 
"  that  it  is  a  happier  and  a  better  thing  to  die  free  than  to 
live  in  bondage,  and  therefore  I  approve  of  your  setting  forth, 
before  these  base  counsellors  can  betray  us  !"  These  words, 
in  unison  with  his  own  feelings,  confirmed  him  in  adopting 
the  design  which  he  had  himself  projected ;  and  having 
ascertained  from  Giacomo  dal  Verme  that  he  had  full 
authority  to  open  a  treaty,  he  surrendered  to  him  the  city 
and  castle  of  Padua.  The  conditions  stipulated  that  Carrara, 
with  his  whole  family,  and  a  retinue  of  two  hundred  persons, 
should  receive  a  safe-conduct  lo  visit  Pavia,  and  to  return 
thence  if  he  so  pleased.  There  it  was  his  hope  to  con- 
clude peace  with  Visconti  ;  but  if  he  failed,  his  capital, 
which  he  now  ceded,  was  to  be  restored.  Dal  Verme  swore 
on  the  sacrament  to  observe  these  terms  inviolably. 

As  Carrara  quitted  his  palace,  the  populace,  instigated 
by  the  council,  rushed  in  and  plundered  it.  At  the  city 
gate  he  met  Dal  Verme,  who,  as  an  evil  augury  for  his 
fidelity,  took  military  possession  of  the  surrendered  posts, 
with  more  than  six  times  the  numbers  which  had  been  ar- 
ranged by  the  treaty.  As  the  fallen  prince  advanced  on  his 
route,  almost  every  town  was  in  revolt ;  and  at  Moncelise, 
and  at  Este,  he  was  received  with  insulting  cries  of  Viva  il 
Conte  di  Virtu  !  At  Verona  and  at  Brescia,  on  the  other 
hand,  he  was  greeted  with  respect ;  and  in  the  former  he 
left  his  lady  while  he  proceeded  to  Milan.  There  also  he 
was  honourably  entertained,  find  his  suspicions  were  not 
awakened  till,  by  repeated  excuses,  Visconti  deferred  the 
promised  conference  at  Pavia,  and  at  length  denied  the 
Lady  Taddea  permission  to  rejoin  her  husband.  "  Now  is 
my  safe-conduct  broken  indeed  I"  was  Carrara's  exclama- 
tion, when  he  learned  this  bitter  refusal. 

Meantime,  similar  frauds  had  been  practised  to  secure  the 
person  of  the  elder  Carrara  at  Treviso.  He  was  invited  to  visit 
Galeazzo  at  Pavia,  and  Francesco  Novella  was  unwillingly 
compelled  to  urge  his  adoption  of  this  perilous  step.  A  mes- 
senger whom  he  secretly  despatched  to  warn  his  father  of  his 
danger,  and  of  the  compulsion  under  which  himself  had  acted, 
proved  treacherous,  and  this  circumstance  combined  with 
the  aged  prince's  defenceless  situation  to  hurry  him  to  his 
ruin.    The  poor  old  man,  as  Gataro  vividly  describes  the 

Z2 


■MBteSja   •fti.-odliij^ 


-i^J^  tf^scaactf  JJ^ft  nCi'iv^f  V 


At^A 


wn%TY/>«T:»   *»««r«/\inc<T»a   rnrtTitrran 


If 


TPTTATV  WTTH  FRANCESCO  NOVET.T.n. 


*>71 


1170 


VENICE  RECOVERS  TREVISO. 


melancholy  scene,*  sat  with  clasped  hands,  listening  to  the 
haransjues  of  the  envoys.  When  they  were  concluded, 
he  made  a  strong  effort  to  clear  his  countenance,  and  stead- 
fastly regarding  them  in  his  accustomed  grave  and  dignified 
manner,  he  repUed,  that  in  so  far  as  he  could  see,  there  was 
no  alternative.  He  then  demanded  a  safe-conduct,  and  the 
chief  envoy,  Spineta,  swore  to  observe  its  conditions ;  as, 
we  are  told,  he  would  have  sworn  to  observe  any  others 
which  might  have  been  proposed.  Treviso  received  a  Mi- 
lanese garrison,  and  Carrara  proceeded  in  mournful  caval- 
cade to  Verona,  where,  on  alighting  from  his  carriage,  he  was 
greeted  by  his  daughter-in-law,  Madonna  Taddea,  who  threw 
herself  at  his  feet,  and,  weeping  bitterly,  embraced  his  knees. 
The  old  man  gently  raised  her ;  first  kissed  the  lady  herself 
with  tears  in  his  eyes,  and  then  her  children — a  scene  which 
the  spectators  did  not  regard  without  deep  emotion.  When, 
on  the  morrow,  he  spoke  of  prosecuting  his  journey  to  Pavia, 
he  was  informed  that  he  could  not  be  permitted  to  depart  till 
the  receipt  of  further  orders  from  Visconti,  and  he  then,  for 
the  first  time,  became  sensible  of  his  captivity.  He  remained 
at  Verona  till  the  commencement  of  the  following  year, 
when  he  was  transferred  to  Cremona, 

The  Trevisano  was  thus  wrested  from  Carrara,  but  it  was 
not  without  some  difficulty  that  it  was  recovered  by  Venice, 
for  the  Milanese  near  its  capital  were  much  superior  in  force 
to  their  allies  ;  and  Visconti  endeavoured  to  profit  by  this 
numerical  advantage.  But  the  republic  was  strong  in  par- 
tisans within  the  walls  ;  and  when  Dal  Verme  entered  with 
his  troops  and  raised  the  standard  of  Milan  on  the  citadel, 
his  ears  were  deafened  with  shouts  of  Viva  San  Marco  !  His 
threats  of  military  punishment  tended  only  to  exasperate 
the  citizens  ;  they  ran  to  arms,  and  barricaded  the  streets, 
till  the  arrival  of  the  Venetian  contingent ;  when  the  lofty 
tone  assumed  by  the  provveditoriy  joined  with  the  decided 
expression  of  popular  feeling,  induced  the  Milanese  general 
to  desist  from  his  faithless  project,  Treviso  was  not  the 
only  acquisition  which  this  war  obtained  for  Venice  ;  since 
yet  earlier,  in  1386,  the  quarrel  with  Carrara  had  been  em- 
ployed as  a  pretext  for  the  recovery  of  Corfu,  which  had 
been  possessed  and  colonized  by  Venice  nearly  two  centuries 
before. 

♦  Andrea  Gataro,  686 


TREATY  WITH  FRANCESCO  NOVELLO. 


271 


Notwithstanding  these  fruits  of  their  alliance  with  Vis- 
conti, it  was  not  possible  but  that  the  Venetians  must  early 
discover  the  disadvantages  of  that  connexion.     The  two 
houses  of  Delia  Scala  and  of  Carrara,  sufficiently  strong  to 
maintain  independence  if  supported  by  the  republic,  were 
otherwise  too  weak   to  inspire  reasonable  jealousy  ;  and 
while  Padua  and  Verona  continued  to  form  for  her  so  many 
outworks  against  the  dangerous  ambition  of  Galeazzo,  her 
superior  force  and  wealth  might  always  retain  their  signors 
in  virtual,  if  not  in  avowed  vassalage.      Yet  she  had  per- 
mitted herself,  through  a  blind  hope  of  immediate  gain,  to 
abandon  one  of  these  neighbours  to  destruction,  after  hav- 
ing stimulated  him  to  war,  and  to  assist  more  actively  in 
the  sacrifice  of  the  other,  in  order  to  promote  the  aggran- 
dizement of  Visconti,  the  most  powerful,  the  most  aspiring, 
and  the  most  perfidious  of  the  Italian  princes.     The  reve- 
nues of  Lombardy  were  rich  and  unembarrassed  ;  her  mas- 
ter retained  a  larger  force  in  his  pay  than  any  other  Euro- 
pean monarch  ;  he  swayed  his  hereditary  dominions  with 
absolute  despotism  ;  and  great  as  was  his  power,  it  was  far 
exceeded  by  his  ambition.     Italy  itself  was  the  deep  stake 
for  which  he  played ;  and  his  vast  means  conspired  with 
his  personal  qualities  to  place  the  chances  of  the  game  much 
in  his  favour.     Singularly  contrasting  personal  timidity  with 
moral  hardihood — while  he  avoided  the  field,  and  not  only  se- 
cluded himself  in  his  palace,  strongly  fortified  and  garrisoned, 
but  employed  unusual  precautions  to  guard  himself  against 
his  very  guards — he  was  instant  in  decision,  firm  in  danger, 
undiscouraged  by  failure.     No  remorse  for  crime,  no  respect 
for  fidelity  interrupted  his   dark  but  certain  policy  :  and 
one  by  one  he  overthrew  or  he  undermined  every  obstacle 
which  intervened  between  himself  and  his  final  goal.     Such 
was  the  neighbour  whose  standard  Venice,  with  her  own 
hands,  had  assisted  to  plant  on  the  coasts  of  the  Adriatic 
and  the  borders  of  the  Lagune. 

The  attempt  upon  Treviso,  and  some  undisguised  avowals 
which  Visconti  had  felt  himself  sufficiently  strong  to  utter, 
contributed  to  open  the  eyes  of  the  republic  to  the  dangers 
which  had  been  created  in  great  part  by  her  own  improvi- 
dent avarice ;  and  the  change  of  policy  to  which  she  was 
led  is  remarkable  even  in  this  history  of  fickleness.  She 
entered  into  a  treaty  with  Francesco  Novello,  whom  she 


1 


/   i! 


i 


HIS  PROJECTS. 


272 


/ 


HIS  PROJECTS. 


had  recently  dethroned,  for  the  express  purpose  of  his  res- 
toration.    The  tirst  months  of  that  prince's  captivity  at 
Milan  were  passed  m   unavailing  complaints,  and  useless 
but  natural  remonstrances.     To  these  a  wiser  course  suc- 
ceeded ;  and  by  entering  upon  a  ceaseless  round  of  plea- 
sure, he  endeavoured  to  persuade  Galeazzo  that  he  had  at 
length  become  reconciled    to   his   fortunes.     The   capital 
re-echoed  with  festivity ;  and  the  banquet,  the  bridal-feast, 
and  the  tournament  were  always  graced  by  the  presence  of 
Carrara.     Visconti,  nevertheless,  was  far  too  wary  to  be 
deceived  ;  and  when  this  change  of  habits  was  reported  to 
him,  he  again  employed  a  proverb,  «  Every  animal  may  be 
tamed  except  the  fox."     Francesco  took  one  step  further- 
he  appeared  before  the  council,  and  there,  solemnly  resiani 
mg  all  pretensions  to  Padua,  he  threw  himself,  wholly  and 
unconditionally,   on  the  generosity   and  kindness  of  the 
Comte  de  Vertu.     Whether  Galeazzo  now  believed  in  the 
sincerity  of  his  captive,  or  whether,  as  is  more  probable, 
he  was   shamed  into  concession,  cannot  be  decided  ;  but 
he  returned  his  hearty  thanks,  accepted  the  renunciation, 
gave  permission  for  the  Lady  Taddea  to  visit  Milan,  and  pro- 
vided ample   funds  for  her  journey.      Though   Carrara's 
affections  were  engrossed  by  the  renewal  of  that  domestic 
happiness  which  he  so  ardently  cherished,  he  still  pretended 
a  greater  fondness  for  amusements  than  before,  and  ap- 
peared to  cultivate  an  intimacy  the  most  confidential  with 
traieazzo.     The  count,  on  the  other  hand,  sent  him  many 
courteous  messages ;  and,  according  to  the  fashion  of  the 
times,   many  rare  delicacies  for  his  table.     He  even  pre- 
tended that  he  had  it  in  contemplation  to  make  over  to  him 
m  perpetuity,  the  signory  of  Lodi. 

Meantime,  Francesco  found  means  to  establish  communi- 
cation  with  his  father,  with  Padua,  and  with  Venice.  To 
a  conhdential  agent  of  the  first  he  explained  two  designs 
which  he  meditated  for  the  death  of  Galeazzo  ;  both  of 
them  sufficiently  evincing  his  undaunted  bearing  and  care- 
lessness of  life.  One  was,  to  accost  his  enemy  singly  in  the 
streets  of  Pavia,  and,  when  near  enough,  to  run  him 
through  the  body.  «  It  is  true,"  he  added,  "  that  I  can 
scarcely  escape  being  cut  to  pieces,  but  many  of  our  family 
will  remain  The  tyrant's  nephews,  Aluise  and  Carlo 
Visconti,  who  are  now  in  his  dungeons,  will  succeed  to  the 


RETIRES  TO  CORTASONE. 


273 


throne,  and  by  them  my  father  and  my  children  will  be 
requited  for  my  good  service.  But  this  plan  is  dangerous, 
and  might  fail."  The  second  scheme  was  equally  daring, 
and  far  less  rash.  The  man  who  resolves  to  sacrifice  his 
own  life  may,  for  the  most  part,  command  that  of  his 
enemy ;  yet  such  double  murder,  like  all  other  mere  vio- 
lence, is  but  a  coarse  and  clumsy  instrument,  requiring 
strength  rather  than  address  for  its  management.  Carrara, 
in  this  instance,  looked  to  safety  as  well  as  to  revenge. 
"  The  count,"  he  said,  "  goes  hunting  on  Tuesdays,  in 
great  state.  His  servants  and  officers,  with  dogs,  hawks, 
and  all  the  implements  of  chase,  ride  first, — next,  the  ladies 
of  the  court, — next,  the  count,  with  one  of  the  ladies  of  his 
family  on  the  crupper,  or  on  a  palfrey  by  his  side, — next, 
the  gentlemen  of  the  court, — and  after  these,  and  closing 
the  train,  three  hundred  horsemen,  of  whom  fifty  are  in 
steel  corslets.  My  own  retainers  amount  to  sixty,  all 
chosen  men,  completely  armed  and  well  mounted.  Now, 
as  they  are  passing,  and  just  as  the  count  comes  opposite 
the  inner  gate  of  my  house,  we  will  charge  them  with 
lances  in  rest,  shouting  '  Aluise  and  Carlo  Visconti  !' 
The  suddenness  of  this  .shock  must  prove  irresistible;  the 
count  and  those  about  him  will  be  borne  down  ;  the  rest 
will  take  to  flight ;  the  partisans  of  Bemabo  will  rise  and  libe- 
rate his  sons,  while  I  seize  one  of  the  gates  and  secure  a 
retreat  for  myself  and  my  friends."* 

Through  the  weakness  of  the  follower  to  whom  these 
designs  were  confidentially  imparted,  and  the  treachery  of 
a  fellow-courtier  who  artfully  extracted  them  from  him, 
they  were  discovered  to  Galeazzo ;  but  he  received  the  in- 
telligence with  cold  thanks,  and  seemingly  attached  little 
credit  to  it.  Carrara,  however,  informed  of  the  revelation, 
deemed  it  prudent  to  accept  a  retirement  which  had  been 
previously  oflTered  him  at  Cortasone,  and  proceeded  thither 
on  a  liberal  allowance.  The  castle  which  he  now  occu- 
pied was  almost  in  ruins,  but  the  surrounding  country  was 
agreeable  and  fruitful  ;  and  the  new  inhabitant  seemingly 
devoted  himself  to  agriculture  and  the  chase.  His  first  acts 
were  well  calculated  to  win  affection  from  the  oppressed 
vassals  whom  he  found  on  the  estate ;  and  who,  being 

*  Andrea  Gataro,  712. 


274 


ESCAPE  AND  ADVENTURES 


Guelphs,  loudly  testified  their  displeasure  at  being  trans- 
ferred to  a  Ghibelin.  He  promised  that  they  should  dis- 
cover in  him  no  difference  of  party  ;  he  declared  that  he 
did  not  come  among  them  to  interfere  with  any  individual's 
property  ;  and  by  a  formal  instrument  he  released  them, 
for  a  period  of  ten  years,  from  all  feodal  burdens  and  im- 
posts, except  the  provision  of  wood,  labour,  and  carriages, 
for  the  repairs  of  the  castle. 

Nor  were  they  peasants  only  whom  this  frank  demean- 
our and  open-handed  bounty  attached  to  his  person,  but 
even  the  Governor  of  Asti  cultivated  his  friendship,  and,  at 
an  early  period,  gave  a  signal  proof  of  esteem,  by  informing 
him  of  a  design  upon  his  life.  Visconti,  it  seems,  either 
at  length  believing  the  reports  which  he  had  at  first  treated 
lightly,  or  willing  to  disburden  himself  of  an  expensive,  if 
not  a  dangerous  prisoner,  had  resolved  upon  his  assassina- 
tion ;  and  the  governor  acquainted  him  with  this  foul  in- 
tention. Cortasone  was  no  longer  a  secure  abode  for  Car- 
rara, and  although  uncertain  of  an  asylum  elsewhere,  he 
resolved  to  quit  it.  No  adventures  of  any  individual  which 
we  can  call  to  mind  excite  more  vivid  interest,  or  are  more 
deeply  tinctured  with  romance  than  those  which  Carrara 
encountered  in  consequence  of  this  determination  ;  and  in 
tracing  them,  we  are  obliged  more  than  once  to  reassure 
ourselves  that  we  are  engaged  not  on  a  fable  of  imagination, 
but  on  an  authentic  and  well-avouched  history.*^ 

Some  Florentine  merchants  in  Asti  assisted  him  in  nego- 
tiating with  the  authorities  of  their  capital ;  and  all  things 
being  favourably  arranged  for  his  flight,  he  asked  a  guide 
and  an  escort  from  the  governor,  in  whom  he  reposed  entire 
confidence ;  at  the  same  time  giving  out  that  it  was  his  in- 
tention, in  company  with  his  lady,  to  satisfy  a  vow,  by 
a  pilgrimage  to  the  shrine  of  St.  Antonio  at  Vienne.  To 
that  town,  accordingly,  he  hastened  with  the  utmost  speed, 
and  passed  on  through  Avignon  to  Marseilles.  Receiving 
intelligence  that  the  captain  of  that  city  was  preparina  to 
arrest  him,  he  embarked  without  delay,  and  saved  hiinself 
but  by  a  moment ;  for  an  attendant,  who  was  mistaken  for 
him,  was  seized  and  thrown  into  prison.  But  the  season 
was  unfavourable  for  a  voyage  ;  the  Lady  Taddea  was  far 

*  The  following  details  occupy  a  large  portion  of  Gafaro's  Chronicle, 
to  which,  in  this  instance,  our  reference  must  be  general. 


OF  FRANCESCO  NOVELLO. 


275 


» 


advanced  in  pregnancy  ;  and  the  violence  of  the  equinoctial 
gales  exposed  her  to  so  great  sufllering,  that  she  earnestly 
implored  to  pursue  her  journey  by  land.     The  aflfections  of 
Francesco  could  not  resist  this  appeal,  although  he  well 
knew  the  additional  peril  to  which  consent  exposed  hun. 
Disembarking,  therefore,  with  only  two  attendaiTts,  he  or- 
dered the  master  of  the  vessel  to  proceed  slowly  along  the 
coast ;  and  having  hired  an  ass,  on  which  the  Lady  Taddea 
was  placed,  himself  being  on  foot,  they  advanced  for  two 
days  through  a  difficult  and  intricate  country  chiefly  occu* 
pied  by  Ghibelins  and  dependants  of  Visconti.     At  Fre- 
rezzo  they  again  went  on  board,  and  after  encountering  a 
heavy  gale,  passing  Nice    and    Monaco,  they  arrived  at 
Torbio.     Here,  when  preparing  to  repose  themselves  in  the 
town,  they  were  informed  that  the  chatelain  was  a  creature 
of  the  Comte  de  Vertu,  and  they  were  compelled  to  lodge 
for  the  night  in  a  ruined  church  on  the  beach.     MTien  they 
arose  in  the  morning,  sleepless  and  harassed,  the  stormy 
appearance  of  the  sea  forbade  re-embarkation,   and  they 
again  commenced  a  long  day's  march  to  Ventimiglia.     In 
that  town,  their  party,  although  small,  excited  attention 
and  curiosity ;  and  it  was  reported  to  the  podesta,  by  the 
busy  suspicions  of  the  peasants,  that  a  man  with  four  com- 
panions two  of  them  women,  had  arrived   at  the  osleria 
beyond   the   gate  ;    that  one    of  the  women,  by   her  de- 
meanour, was  manifestly  a  personage  of  high  station  ;  and 
that,  judging  by  those  who  surrounded  her,  there  could  be 
little  doubt  it  was  a  case  of  forcible  abduction.     The  maais- 
trate,   deceived  by   these  representations,  despatched  "an 
officer,  with  ten  soldiers,  to  bring  the  travellers  before  him. 
Francesco,  when  they  overtook  him,  fought  his  way  to  the 
shore,  and  succeeded  in  getting  his  lady  and  her  attendants 
on  shipboard  ;  but  he  himself,  being  last,  was  overpowered 
and  taken  prisoner.     The  officer  charged  the  captain  of  the 
vessel  not  to  sail,  as  he  valued  his  life  ;  and  demanded  the 
name  of  his  prisoner.     When  informed  that  it  was  the  late 
Lord  of  Padua,  he  ordered  his  men  to  fall  back  and  ground 
their  arms  ;  and  advancing  with  an  air  of  respect,  proffered 
obedience,   and  asked    pardon;    adding,    that    he  was   a 
Guelph,  and  had  once  served  the  house  of  Padua.     On  re- 
ceiving this  assurance,  Francesco  requested  that  he  might 
be  escorted  to  the  castle,  where  the  jpodestay  having  listened 


H 


/ 


276 


ADVENTURES  OF 


to  his  explanation,  supplied  him  with  provisions,  and  re- 
conducted him  to  his  ship. 

A  favourable  wind  bore  the  fugitives  rapidly  to  the  terri- 
tory of  the  Marquis  of  Carreiro.  Towards  evening  they 
again  landed  with  the  same  companions  as  before  ;  and 
anxious  to  hasten  through  a  district  in  which  they  were 
beset  by  enemies,  they  travelled  during  the  whole  night  on 
foot.  At  break  of  day,  exhausted  by  hunger  and  fatigue, 
they  procured  some  food  from  a  neighbouring  cottage  ;  and 
while  some  shared  this  homely  fare,  the  others  kept  guard 
among  the  surrounding  trees.  While  thus  occupied,  a 
stranger  approached,  and  inquiring  for  the  Lord  of  Padua, 
in  the  name  of  Donati,  his  chief  friend  at  Florence,  pro- 
duced the  countersigns  with  which  Carrara  had  furnished 
his  agent,  the  halves  of  broken  dice  and  of  some  coins  bear- 
ing his  own  impress.  These  corresponded  with  the  tallies ; 
and  Carrara,  satisfied  of  the  good  faith  of  the  messenger, 
accompanied  him  on  board  a  vessel  in  waiting  to  convey 
them  to  Genoa.  On  their  passage,  once  again  they  en- 
countered a  storm ;  and  being  driven  into  Savona,  they 
had  landed,  and  were  preparing  for  refreshment,  when  an 
express  from  the  doge  warned  them  to  hasten  from  the 
coast,  which  swarmed  with  Galeazzo's  emissaries.  Without 
food  or  repose,  they  hurried  back  to  their  ship  ;  and  in  the 
morning,  having  entered  Genoa  in  the  disguise  of  German 
pilgrims,  they  concealed  themselves  a  while  in  a  mean  inn, 
and  then  sailed  from  Capona  to  Moncione.  Here,  while 
refreshing  themselves,  they  were  alarmed  by  the  arrival  of 
a  courier  to  prepare  quarters  for  one  of  Galeazzo's  officers, 
who,  with  a  troop  of  forty  men,  was  on  his  route  to  Pisa.  A 
thicket  afforded  them  shelter  till  this  company  had  passed  by ; 
and  Carrara  then  cheered  the  drooping  spirits  of  his  lady, 
by  assuring  her  that  certain  succour  was  at  hand  ;  that  he 
had  warned  a  friend  at  Pisa,  deeply  indebted  to  his  house, 
of  his  approach  ;  and  that  every  moment  horses  might  be 
expected  for  their  conveyance.  Pietro  Gambacorta,  he 
added,  when  himself  in  exile  and  distress,  had  found  pro- 
tection from  Francesco  Vecchio,  and  an  asylum  in  Padua ; 
whence,  after  a  long  abode,  through  the  influence  of  the 
same  prince,  he  was  enabled  to  return  to  his  native  city, 
laden  with  wealth  and  honours.  Scarcely  were  these  words 
uttered,  when  the  hope  which  they  had  kindled  in  Taddea 


FRANCESCO  NOVELLO  DA  CARRARA. 


277 


was  fatally  extinguished  by  the  return  of  the  messenger 
with  excuses  from  Gambacorta;  he  dared  not  furnish 
horses ;  he  dared  not  permit  Carrara's  entrance  into  Pisa ; 
the  bloodhounds  of  Visconti  had  been  slipped,  the  cry  was 
up,  and  alreatly  they  were  tracking  the  fugitives. 

No  token  of  impatience,  not  a  breath  of  complaint  escaped 
Carrara — "God  will  restore  us — we  must  struggle  with 
misfortune  !"  was  his  sole  comment.  He  raised  the  lifeless 
Taddea,  who  had  been  overpowered  by  the  unexpected  dis- 
appointment, and  entering  Pisa  with  his  Florentine  guide, 
regardless  of  all  personal  hazard,  procured  a  horse  and 
some  food,  and  returned  with  them  to  his  lady.  A  wretched 
stable  in  the  worst  inn  without  the  walls  of  Casina  gave 
them  refuge  for  the  night;  and  Donati,  who  had  joined 
them,  the  Florentine,  and  the  rest  of  the  company  sentineled 
the  door,  while  the  signor  and  Taddea  threw  themselves  on 
some  straw  within.  But  in  the  dead  of  the  night  an  un- 
known person  knocked  loudly  at  the  inn,  and  demanded 
the  Signor  Francesco  da  Carrara.  "I  am  he,"  replied 
Donati,  with  noble  promptitude,  as  yet  ignorant  of  the 
inquirer's  object.  It  was  a  messenger  from  Gambacorta, 
bringing  an  explanatory  letter,  horses,  and  a  few  neces- 
saries for  the  road,  and  commending  the  travellers  to  the 
strict  attention  of  the  host.  In  consequence  of  these  in- 
junctions, they  were  at  length  admitted  within  the  house, 
and  for  the  first  night  since  her  departure  from  Asti,  Taddea 
enjoyed  the  almost  forgotten  luxury  of  a  bed.  On  the 
following  day  they  arrived  at  Florence. 

In  the  short  interval,  however,  which  had  been  occupied 
by  these  painful  adventures,  the  policy  of  the  Tuscan 
government  had  materially  altered ;  its  diflerences  with 
Visconti  had  been  adjusted,  at  least  for  a  time,  and  Carrara, 
instead  of  being  received  with  open  arms,  as  a  prince  un- 
justly dethroned,  and  whose  restoration  was  an  object  of 
national  care,  found  himself  considered  but  as  a  private  indi- 
vidual, from  whom  a  return  of  gratitude  was  expected  for 
the  asylum  granted  to  his  necessity.  Yet,  as  Florence 
was  far  enough  removed  from  his  chief  enemy  to  afford 
reasonable  assurance  of  safety,  he  collected  in  it  the  re- 
mainder of  his  family  and  a  large  treasure  in  money  and 
jewels ;  and  he  appears  to  have  courted  with  assiduity  and 
success  the  friendship  of  the  resident  Venetian  ambassador. 

Vol.  I. — A  a 


jfl-»taL-a 


278    EMBASSY  TO  THE  DUKE  OF  BAVARIA. 

So  dark  and  intricate,  indeed,  were  the  changes  of  Italian 
politics  at  the  time  of  which  we  are  treating,  that  it  is  far 
from  improbable  that  Venice,  even  at  this*  early  period, 
and  during  an  avowed  alliance  with  Galeazzo,  arranged 
with  Carrara,  soon  after  his  arrival  at  Florence,  the  plans 
which  were  afterward  matured  for  the  discomfiture  of  his 
rival. 

Far  from  being  discouraged  by  the  ill  success  of  his  hopes 
in  Tuscany,  disappointment  seems  only  to  have  whetted 
more  keenly  the  activity  of  the  exiled  prince.     He  applied 
to  the  Bolognese,  and  was  coldly  refused  ;  and  so  low  were 
his  fortunes  supposed  to  have  fallen,  that  at  Cortona  he  was 
invited  to  enter,  as   an  adventurer,   among  Hawk  wood's 
condottieri.     From  this  offer  he  excused  himself,  but  he 
thought  it  wise  to  engage  his  brother  in  the  free  service, 
upon  which  connexion  he  might  hereafter,  perhaps,  found 
a  useful  claim.     Coasting  the  Adriatic  in  disguise,  amid 
almost  constant  peril,  he  touched  at  Chiozza,  was  recog- 
nised, and  narrowly  escaped  capture,  and  but  for  a  sudden 
change  of  wind,  must  have  been  overtaken  by  the  squadron 
which  gave  chase.     After  employing  many  months  in  tra- 
versmg  Icaly,  hopes  of  aid  gleamed  upon  him  both  from 
Florence  and  Bologna.     It  had  become  plain  to  each  of 
those  governments,  that  Visconti  was  only  temporizing,  and 
that  his  preparations  were  ultimately  directed  to  war.     Car- 
rara, accordingly,  was  summoned  back  to  Florence,  and  he 
undertook  the  dangerous  office  of  ambassador  from  that 
republic  to  the  Duke  of  Bavaria,  in  order  to  concert  a  leao-ue, 
not  only  for  the  recovery  of  his  own  dominions  but  also  for 
common  defence  against  Milan.     In  order  to  effect  the  pur- 
poses of  this  mission,  it  was  necessary  that  he  should  receive 
from  Venice  a  safe-conduct  through  the  Trevisan  marches  ; 
and  it  may  be  believed  that  a  secret  understanding  existed 
among  these  several  states,  from  the  guarantee  given  by 
Bologna  and  Florence,  that  such  an  instrument  should  be 
procured.     Passing    by  sea   from    Leghorn   to   Provence, 
Carrara  then  crossed  Dauphiny  and  Savoy  to  Genoa,  and 
proceeded  by  Lausanne  to  Zurich.    In  that  city,  as  he  rode 
into  the  courtyard  of  the  inn  at  which  he  was  to  lodge,  an  agent 
of  Visconti  bowed  to  him,  and  Carrara,  with  the  presence 
of  mind  which  appears  never  to  have  failed  him  in  any  peril, 
immediately  sent  for  the  master  of  the  house,  threw  off  his 


INCONSTANCY  OF  FLORENCE. 


279 


,i 


disguise,  avowed  his  name,  and  explained  his  danger.  The 
host  expressed  great  emotion,  and  in  token  of  his  sincerity 
produced  a  silver  cup  bearing  the  arms  of  Carrara,  which 
had  been  presented  to  him  when  in  Italy  by  Francesco 
Vecchio.  He  then  pledged  himself  for  the  safety  of  his 
illustrious  guest,  procured  him  armed  guides,  and  person- 
ally accompanying  the  escort,  conducted  him  by  daybreak 
to  Constance,  where  he  crowned  this  act  of  fidelity  by  one 
of  equal  disinterestedness,  and  refused  all  recompense  for 
the  important  services  which  he  had  performed. 

The  Duke  of  Bavaria,  the  brother-in-law  of  Bemabo 
Visconti  whom  Galeazzo  had  murdered,  listened  eagerly  to 
Carrara's  details  of  his  own  wrongs  and  of  the  crimes  of  the 
usurper,  applauded  the  great  enterprise  which  he  was  medi- 
tating, promised  the  most  active  co-operation,  and  agreed  to 
advance  funds  for  the  supply  of  twelve  thousand  men.  But 
the  brilliant  hopes  thus  excited  were  again  dimrned  by  the 
fickleness  of  Bologna  and  Florence.  The  spies  of  the 
Count  of  Milan  had  obtained  knowledge  of  the  transactions 
at  Munich,  and  of  the  readiness  of  the  two  Italian  govern- 
ments to  connect  themselves  with  Bavaria.  Alarmed  at 
this  intelligence,  Visconti  lost  not  a  moment  in  offering 
such  concessions  as  might  secure  the  continuance  of  peace  ; 
and  a  league  of  alliance  for  ten  years  was  concluded  with 
the  two  republics,  some  few  hours  before  a  messenger  from 
Carrara  brought  to  Florence  a  draught  of  the  counter-treaty 
which  he  had  been  employed  to  negotiate. 

For  the  first  time,  the  fortitude  of  Carrara  appears  to 
have  bowed  under  this  shock.  When  he  received  the  intel- 
liaencc,  he  fell,  says  Gataro,  as  from  a  blow.  The  affec- 
tionate cares  of  his  sister  Catarina,  and  of  her  noble  hus- 
band Stefano,  Count  of  Segna  in  Croatia,  with  whom  he 
was  staying  at  Modrusa,  consoled  and  revived  him.  His 
kinsman  promised  to  abide  by  him  in  every  extremity,  and 
to  bring  into  the  field  two  thousand  horse,  while  some 
Hungarian  friends  would  answer  for  three  thousand  more. 
He  represented,  however,  that  it  was  above  all  imperatively 
necessary  to  gain  over  the  signory  of  Venice,  without  whose 
o-ood-will  success  would  be  impossible ;  and  he  added  that 
the  King  of  Bosnia  was  indignant  with  Visconti,  who  had 
treacherously  suppUed  his  enemies  the  Turks  with  arms 
and  treasure,  during  a  recent  war ;  and  that  it  was  far  from 


♦ 


280 


PROPHECY  TO  CARRARA. 


improbable  that  an  urgent  representation  might  procure  his 
accession  to  the  alliance. 

Carrara  undertook  this  fresh  negotiation,  and  prepared 
for  the  journey.  Before  its  commencement,  however,  his 
sister  prevailed  upon  him  to  consult  a  woman  in  the  neigh- 
bourhood, of  high  reputation  as  a  prophetess.*  However 
incredulous  of  this  sibyl's  pretensions  to  knowledge  of 
futurity,  Francesco,  partly  from  curiosity,  partly  from  will- 
ingness to  gratify  a  request  which  Catarina's  love  had 
prompted,  consented  to  the  experiment.  The  seer  was 
brought  to  Stefano's  castle,  where  Carrara  related  to  her 
much  of  his  past  hfe  (for  her  science,  it  appears,  was  entirely 
prospective),  imparted  most  confidentially  all  his  designs 
and  wishes,  and  demanded  information  as  to  the  events 
about  to  come.  The  prophetess  required  time,  took  her 
leave,  and  reappeared  at  the  hour  which  she  had  appointed. 
She  then  told  him,  as  we  are  assured,  many  things  concern- 
ing his  future  course ;  that  he  should  re-enter  Padua  in  June, 
and  recover  its  sovereignty ;  and  that  his  mission  to  Bosnia 
was  at  an  end,  for  that  it  would  be  necessary  that  he  should 
again  treat  with  Bavaria.  "  You  do  not  credit  my  words," 
she  continued,  with  solemnity,  observing  his  contemptuous 
smile  of  unbelief;  "but  I  affirm  to  you  that,  at  this  moment 
the  Comte  de  Vertu  has  broken  his  faith  with  Bologna  and 
Florence,  that  war  is  in  preparation,  and  that  messengers 
are  now  seeking  you  with  this  announcement.  For  your 
father,  concerning  whom  you  ask,  he  will  die  in  prison." 
Happy  was  it  that  her  fatal  presages  did  not  extend  to 
Carrara's  own  last  moments,  and  that  the  remaining  years 
of  his  life  escaped  additional  imbitterment  from  an  anticipa- 
tion of  the  bloody  goal  at  which  they  were  to  terminate ! 
On  the  morrow,  as  he  was  already  on  his  route,  he  was 
stopped  by  messengers  from  Florence,  who,  producing  their 
credentials,  informed  him  that  fresh  disputes  had  arisen 
between  Visconti  and  their  republic,  that  they  were  author- 
ized to  instruct  him  to  renew  the  treaty  with  Bavaria,  and 
that  ambassadors  were  already  in  Friuli,  waiting  to  proceed 
in  due  time  to  its  ratification.! 

Great  as  was  the  delight  and  astonishment  of  Carrara  at 
this  most  unexpected  intelligence,  the  prediction  of  which 

*  Una  sapientissima  donna,  Andrea  Gataro,  763. 
t  Andrea  Gataro,  ut  sup. 


CARRARA  SETS  OUT  FOR  PADUA. 


281 


he  had  rejected  as  an  idle  dream,  he  still  doubted  how  far 
it  might  be  prudent  to  rely  on  the  ever-shifting  policy  of 
his  Italian  allies.     The  messengers  earnestly  avouched  the 
fixed   and   serious   intention   of   their    governments,    and 
assured  him  that  there  was  strong  reason  to  hope  for  the 
assistance  even  of  Venice.     This  last  suggestion  prevailed, 
and  he  no  longer  hesitated  to  undertake  the  proposed  resump- 
tion of  his  embassy.     It  was  in  all  points  successful,  and  he 
found  the  Duke  of  Bavaria  continuing  firm  to  his  original 
promises.     But  the  season  was  too  far  advanced  to  permit 
military  operations,  and  the  winter  accordingly  was  spent 
in  diplomacy.    To  Carrara  it  brought  also  profound  domestic 
sorrows,  and  no  small  diminution  of  hope.     He  mourned 
the  sudden  death  of  his  faithful  kinsman.  Count  Stefano, 
and  of  his  aunt,  Lieta  da  Carrara,  the  wife  of  a  scarcely 
less  valued  and  powerful  friend,  the  Count  of  Ottenburgh. 
His  brother,  whom  he  had  enrolled  under  Hawkwood,  was 
surprised  and  taken  prisoner ;  his  father  was  transferred  to 
more  close  imprisonment  at  Monza ;  and  the  Florentines, 
notwithstanding  their  late   professions,  seemed  anxiously 
looking  for  reconciliation  with  Milan.     These  complicated 
ills  pressed  heavily  on  his  wounded  spirit ;  and  worn  down 
by  fatigue,  anxiety,  and  disappointment,  he  passed  many 
weeks  confined  to  the  solitude  of  a  sick  couch,  in  a  remote 
and  barbarous  district.     Spring  and  better  tidings 
restored  both  health  and  confidence.     His  brother    ^onn 
regained  his  liberty ;    Florence  and  Bologna  were 
forced  into  an  open  declaration  of  war ;  and  Venice,  more 
than  ever  jealous  of  the  growing  power  of  Visconti,  willingly 
consented  to  obser\e  a  strict  neutrality. 

Impatient  of  the  tyranny  of  Galeazzo,  the  Paduans  were 
well  prepared  to  tender  renewed  allegiance  to  their  former 
lord ;  and  Carrara,  without  waiting  for  foreign  succours, 
resolved  to  attempt  the  recovery  of  his  dominions  by  the 
single  aid  of  his  yet  faithful  subjects.  For  this  purpose  he 
set  forward  from  the  castle  of  Ottenburgh,  in  Carinthia,  in 
April,  with  a  force  not  exceeding  three  hundred  men-at- 
arms  and  two  hundred  infantry.  The  Duke  of  Bavaria 
wished  him  to  delay  his  departure  one  month  longer,  when 
he  promised  to  accompany  him  ;  but  Carrara  replied  that 
he  would  be  in  Padua  before  the  duke  began  his  march,  and 
have  all  things  prepared  for  his  reception.    As  he  advanced, 

Aa2 


f  f 
( 


I 


282 


CARRARA  RECOVERS  PADUA. 


h 


T4TATTT  iw  T"Oivr'Tcr<n  vrr</^TTTr» 


OQO 


n 


282 


CARRARA  RECOVERS  PADUA. 


numbers  flocked  to  his  standard ;  his  brother  joined  him 
with  a  hundred  and  fifty  chosen  lances  ;  every  town  through 
which  he  passed  declared  in  his  favour ;  and  he  was  met  by 
a  deputation  from  the  capital,  which  assured  him  that  the 
citizens  would  rise  en  masse,  as  soon  as  he  appeared  at 
their  gates.  By  the  middle  of  June  he  encamped  under  the 
walls,  at  the  head  of  a  strong  regular  force,  and  supported 
by  more  than  twelve  thousand  armed  peasants.  The 
Milanese  governors  prepared  for  defence ;  they  received 
Carrara's  summons  with  disdain,  thrust  the  pennant  of  the 
herald  who  bore  it  into  his  trumpet  as  a  mark  of  indignity, 
and  desired  him  to  return  to  his  lord  and  inform  him  that 
he  was  a  fool  who,  having  been  thrown  out  of  the  window, 
expected  to  come  in  again  by  the  door. 

A  brilliant  coup  de  main  by  night  placed  the  city  in  Car- 
rara's hands.  At  the  head  of  twelve  chosen  men,  the  signor 
himself  was  the  first  to  ford  the  Brenta  and  mount  the 
ramparts  ;  and  at  daybreak  the  citadel  only,  to  which  they 
had  retired,  was  left  to  the  Milanese.  Little  blood  had  been 
shed  in  this  conquest ;  and  even  in  the  few  houses  of  his 
leading  enemies  which  it  was  deemed  politic  to  abandon  to 
military  pillage,  the  humanity  of  Carrara  procured  respect 
for  the  female  apartments.  In  the  first  moments  of  victory, 
he  repaired  to  the  church  of  St.  Antonio,  and  remaining  on 
his  knees,  in  full  armour,  during  the  celebration  of  mass, 
he  arose  at  its  conclusion,  and  taking  off  his  richly  embroi- 
dered surcoat,  laid  it  on  the  altar,  as  a  votive  offering  to  his 
patron  and  protector. 

Galeazzo,  though  superior  both  in  the  number  and  quality 
of  his  troops,  had  spread  them  over  far  too  extended  a  line 
to  be  able  to  concentrate  a  sufficient  force  for  the  defence  or 
the  recovery  of  Padua.  Beyond  a  few  affairs  of  posts  and 
some  petty  skirmishes,  nothing  was  effected  by  him  during 
the  succeeding  campaign;  and  each  fortress  and  town 
within  Carrara's  ancient  territory  yielded  in  succession  to 
its  former  lord.  Venice  outstepped  her  declared  neu- 
trality, gave  reception  to  the  ambassadors  who  announced 
Francesco's  victories,  and  granting  to  them  the  stores  and 
troops  which  they  were  instructed  to  request,  furnished 
large  supplies  of  artillery  from  the  arsenal,  and  placed  four 
hundred  crossbowmen  at  their  disposal.  Now,  too,  large 
reinforcements  from  Bavaria,  headed  by  their  duke,  had 


i 


I? 


DEATH  OF  FRANCESCO  VECCHIO. 


283 


reached  the  walls  of  Padua,  others  followed  from  Florence, 
and  before  the  close  of  August  the  citadel,  the  last  hold  of 
Visconti,  had  surrendered,  and  Francesco  da  Carrara  was 
firmly  re-established  on  the  throne  of  his  fathers. 

The  mediation  of  Venice  termhiated  a  petty  war  in 
which  Francesco  engaged,  soon  after  his  restoration, 
with  Alberto  of  Ferrara ;  and  at  the  close  of  two  ,^1' ^* 
years,  peace  was  ratified  with  the  Comte  de  Vertu. 
In  the  spring  of  1392,  Francesco,  determining  to  return 
thanks  in  person  for  the  important  aid  he  had  received  from 
the  signory,  set  out  for  Venice ;  and  on  his  arrival  at  Fusina, 
he  was  met  by  the  Bucentaur,  and  escorted  to  the  capital  by 
the  gondolas  of  more  than  two  hundred  nobles.  The  doge 
awaited  his  landing  on  the  jtiazzctta,  where  Carrara,  leading 
his  eldest  son  by  the  hand,  threw  himself  on  his  knees  at 
the  feet  of  the  Venetian  prince,  expressed  his  deep  gratitude 
for  the  favours  which  had  been  bestowed  upon  him,  and 
his  ardent  hope  that  all  former  causes  of  animosity  were 
now  forgotten  for  ever.  He  entreated  the  signory  to  receive 
him  and  all  his  house  as  their  children,  even  as  he,  from  his 
very  heart,  now  offered  them  all  that  love  and  duty  which  a 
son  owes  to  his  father !  Veniero  raised  and  embraced  him 
with  affection,  conducted  him  to  the  ducal  palace,  and  de- 
livered an  answer  from  the  throne  in  full  conformity  to  his 
wishes.  After  a  few  days  spent  in  honourable  entertain- 
ment and  festivity,  Carrara  returned  to  Padua,  and  then, 
for  the  first  time  since  his  restoration,  he  appears  to  have 
felt  suflScient  confidence  in  his  stability  to  desire  the  pres- 
ence of  Taddea.  He  was  attached  to  her  with  a  tenderness 
and  devotion  which  excluded  all  selfish  feeling,  and  which 
induced  him  to  consent  to  the  pain  of  long  separation  when 
union  was  not  compatible  with  her  security. 

Although  reconciled  to  Visconti,  Carrara  had  not  yet 
obtained  the  release  of  his  father,  and  in  his  person  the  pre- 
dictions of  the  Croatian  sibyl  were  again  to  be  verified.     In 
spite,  or  in  consequence,  of  the  attendance  of  five  physicians 
employed  by  the  Comte  de  Vertu,  notwithstanding  the  skill 
which   they  manifested,    and    the   magical   liquors 
{solenni  liquori)  which   they  prescribed,  Francesco    ^'^' 
Vecchio  terminated  his  long  course  of  unhappiness 
about  three  years  after  his  son's  restoration.    If  posthumous 
honours  were  able  to  compensate  a  whole  life  of  restless- 


l! 


■IV-.S 


284 


LEAGUE  AGAINST  THE  TURKS. 


i 


n 


BAIWrTT     /M?      XTTrirtTlrtT  TO 


OOR 


284 


LEAGUE  AGAINST  THE  TURKS. 


/I 


ness  and  suffering,  the  spirit  of  the  departed  signor  miffht 
have  been  gratified  by  the  magnificence  of  his  obsequies 
The  body  lay  in  state  at  Milan,  habited  in  cloth  of  gold' 
and  girt  with  a  sword  ;  golden  spurs  were  buckled  on  the 
foet,  and  jewelled  nngs  glittered  on  the  fingers.  It  was  after- 
ward conveyed  with  no  less  ceremony  to  Padua,  and  interred 
there  with  a  splendour  of  pageantry  which  Gataro  appears 
to  have  contemplated  and  recorded  with  unusual  delight 

For  a  few  years,  the  reign   of  Francesco  Novello  was 
comparatively  tranquil ;  and  we  turn  for  a  short  time  from 
his  romantic  story  in  order  to  resume  it  hereafter  with  vet 
deeper  interest  than  before.     The  attention  of  Venice  was 
now  forcible  attracted  to  the  East,  where  the  feeble  reign  of 
John  Palffiologus   had  been   succeeded    by  one  yet  more 
feeble,  the  sceptre  of  Constantinople  having  passed  to  his 
son  Manuel.      Bajazet,  the    fourth  Ottoman    sultan,  had 
rendered  both  princes  his  tributaries,  stripped  them  of  almost 
all  their  territory  without  the  capital,  and  ultimately,  in  the 
reign  of  Manuel,  laid  siege  to  Constantinople  itself.     The 
affrighted  emperor  bought  off  immediate  destruction  by  the 
payment  of  ten  thousand  florins,  the  cession  of  a  quarter 
of  his  metropolis,  and  the  grant  of  a  mosque  for  the  worship 
of  the  prophet.     But  the  appetite  of  the  Turkish  despot, 
only  whetted  to  greater  keenness  by  the  taste   of  spoil 
urged  him  to  violate  this  treaty,  and  to  threaten  new  and 
tar  greater  exactions.    His  progress  alarmed  those  Christian 
powers  whose  interests  were  connected  with  the  East ;  and 
fc>igismond  of  Hungary,  the  Genoese,  and  the  Venetians 
tormed    an  alliance,  not   so   much   for  the  assistance   of 
PalsBologus  as  for  the  defence  of  their  own  territorial  or 
commercial   nghts.      Venice,    earnestly  desirous    to    add 
strength  to  this  league,  cast  her  eyes  upon  both  England 
and  !•  ranee,  the  two  kingdoms  from  which  she  hoped  to 
A.  D.     ^'■^'^  "^f  ^  effectual  support ;  and  Cario  Zeno,  having 
1396.    ^^^"  selected  as  her  ambassador  to  those  powers, 
employed  nine  months  in  his   important   mission. 
1  he  court  of  Pans  was  struck  with  astonishment  when  the 
accomplished  envoy,  having  first  addressed  the  king  in  Latin, 
repeated  the  substance  of  his  speech  in  correct  French,  a 
language  in  which  he  was  practised,  from  having  spent  his 
youth  at  Avignon.*     But  Charies  VI.  had  littll  ability  to 
*  Vita  Car.  Zeni,  ap.  Murat.  xix.  p.  316. 


I 


F 


BATTLE  OF  NICOPOLIS. 


285 


undertake  distant  expeditions  ;  and  he  contented  himself,  as 
sovereign  of  Genoa,  which  had  submitted  to  his  protection, 
by  ordering  the  equipment  of  a  fleet  from  her  ports.      The 
distractions  in  England  were  yet  greater  than  in  France, 
and  the  realm,  harassed  by  the  cabals  of  the  nobles,  and 
weakened  by  the  indolence,  the  profusion,  and  the  voluptu- 
ousness of  the  second  Richard,  was  on  the  eve  of  a  domestic 
revolution.     The  tongue  of  our  remote  island  did  not  at 
that  time  form  a  part  of  Cisalpine  study,  and  Zeno  trans- 
acted his  diplomacy  in  Latin ;  but  we  are  assured  that  he 
gained  his  object,  and  was  highly  favoured  by  the  king. 
Notwithstanding  his  success,   scarcely  ten  thousand  men 
could  be  raised  in  France  for  this  crusade.     They  were 
marshalled  under  the  command  of  John,  Count  of  Nevers, 
son  of  Philip  the  Hardy,  Duke  of  Burgundy;  and  they 
embarked   with   ill-judged    and   presumptuous   confidence, 
more  as  if  about  to  swell  the  pomp  of  a  pageant  or  a  spec- 
tacle, than  to  encounter  a  difficult  and  hazardous  warfare. 
But  their  ranks,  although  scanty,  were  supplied  with  the 
flower  of  the  French  chivalry  :    among  them  were    four 
cousins  of  the  king,  and  the  constable,  marshal,  and  admiral 
of  France.     A  thousand  knights  of  noble  blood  were  at- 
tended by  numerous  youthful  valets;  and  a  train  of  facile 
beauties,  for  whom  the  camp  presented  less  of  terror  than  of 
attraction,  shared  the  peril  and  rewarded  the  fondness  of 
those  lovers  to  whom  choice  or  chance  had  attached  them. 
The  combined  fleet,  amounting  to  forty-four  sail,  swept  the 
Archipelago  and  the  Sea  of  Marmora  without  encountering 
a  foe,  and  took  its  station,  under  the  command  of  the  Vene- 
tian  admiral  Tomaso  Moncenigo,  at  the  mouth   of  the 
Danube.     Here  it  was  able  to  communicate  with  the  host 
of  Sigismond,  who,  with  one  hundred  thousand  men,  of 
whom  sixty  thousand  were  cavalry,  awaited  the  arrival  of 
the  allies  on  the  plains  of  Buda.     It  belongs  not  to  our 
present  narrative  to  detail  the  unfortunate  events  of  this 
most  disastrous  campaign,  in  which  the  only  portion  allotted 
to  Venice   by  the  chance  of  war  was  that  of  saving  the 
wreck  of  her  defeated  confederates.     In  spite  of  the  prudent 
cautions  of  Sigismond,  the  rashness  and  inexperi- 
ence  of  the  French  hurried  on  the  fatal  battle  of   ^^P^-^- 
JVicopolis ;  and  the  Venetian  fleet  learned  the  total  destruc- 
tion of  their  allies  and  the  slaughter  of  the  entire  French 


!  S 


Nl 


286 


MILAM    ■R'RTPTT'n    T-WTrt     a     TkYTrr-r^TTiT 


■^ 


r^  rutjrw  k  rt  It     /-vr"     mr  i  »TrnTT  a 


na^ 


286 


MILAN  ERECTED  INTO  A  DUTCHY. 


host,  with  the  exception  of  its  captured  princes,  by  the 
arrival  of  a  bark  conveying  the  King  of  Hungary  and  no 
more  than  seven  of  his  retinue,  fugitives  from  the  lost 
field.* 

While  Venice  had  been  thus  unsuccessfully  engaged  in 
the  East,  Galeazzo  was  steadily  prosecuting  his  schemes  of 
aggrandizement   in   Italy.      The   avarice   of  the  emperor 
Wenceslaus  had  fixed  a  hundred  thousand   florins  as  the 
price  at  which  he  would  permit  the  erection  of  Milan  into  a 
Sepf  13  ^"^c^anJ  an  imperial  fief:  and  Galeazzo,  having  fiil- 
1395.'  ^"^^  ^^^  stipulated  conditions,  celebrated  his  corona- 
tion  with  unprecedented  magnificence.    If  we  believe 
the  chroniclers,  more  ambassadors  than  any  world  save  that 
of  romance  produces,  honoured  the  proud*  ceremonial  with 
their  presence.    Besides  the  representatives  of  all  the  Chris- 
tian powers,  there  were  to  be  seen  those  of  the  Grand  Turk 
of  the  King  of  the  Tartars,  of  the  Great  Soldan,  of  Tamerlane! 
of  many  other  heathen  princes,  and  even  of  Prester  John. 
All  these  were  lodged  and  entertained  at  the  expense  of 
Milan  ;  but  in  return,  they  had  brought  with  them  presents 
of  jewels,  estimated  at  upwards  of  a  million  of  gold.     The 
two  elder  sons  of  Carrara  repaired  to  the  new  duke's  court, 
and  they  were  received  by  the  wily  prince  with  such  dis- 
tmction  as  might  have  marked  him  the  hereditary  friend 
rather  than  the  determined  foe  of  their  house.     He  ad- 
vanced on  foot  a  bowshot  to  meet  them ;  he  embraced  and 
kissed  them  on  the  forehead,  and  taking  a  hand  of  each  he 
walked  between  them  to  the  palace,  where,  with  a  profuse 
magnificence  unknown  to  later  times,  lodgings  were  assigned 

i«*-^^°'^^^"  distinctly  ascribes  the  disasters  of  the  Christian  host 
in  a  great  measure,  to  the  treachery  of  Visconti,  who  comniuiiicated 
their  plans  to  Bajazet  (Lamorabaquy).  He  introduces  the  Turk  ex- 
press.ng  Ins  joy  that  the  Hungarians  had  crossed  the  Danube:  "Of 
all  this  I  hadrie  knowledge  four  months  paste  by  my  greate  friende 
he  Lorde  of  Myllayne,  who  sent  me  goshawkes,  gerfalcons,  and  faucons 
to  the  nonribre  of  twelve,  whiche  were  the  best  and  fayresi  that  ever  I 

llZtJ  .Zt  ^J^'l  P'v.^^''"^  ^^  ''''*"^'' '°  "'^  ^y  "^"'e  alle  the  heedes  and 
chiefe  captains  of  the  barones  of  France,  suche  as  shulde  come  to  make 
me  warre;  m  the  which  letters  was  also  conteyned,  that  if  1  myght  get 
them  in  my  daunger,  they  shulde  be  wort  he  to  me  a  mvllyon  of 
noreynes  ;  and  also  howe  there  shulde  be  in  company  of  the  Ivmvtees  of 

fh'?nfl"'°r\l^n"  ^^^'^  ^""^""^^  kniffhtes, valyant  men  of armes;  also 
the  Duke  ol  Mylayne  wrote,  that  surely  tliey  wyll  gyve  me  batayle." 

^Tvllf  "'"■";•  "•.^^^'  %^-  ^^^^'  ^'^-  Froissart,  in  the  same  chap  er. 
gives  many  particulars  of  the  history  of  the  family  of  Visconti. 


/ 


GONZAGA  OF  MANTUA. 


287 


for  the  entertainment  of  themselves  and  of  their  train  of 

five  hundred   horse.      When  the   imperial   ministers  had 

placed  upon  his  head  the  ducal  bonnet,  gorgeously  studded 

with  jew^els  of  inappreciable  value,  he  took  it  from  his  brow 

and  presented  it  to  the  young  princes,  at  the  same  time 

remitting  an  annual  tribute  of  seven  thousand  ducats,  to 

which  Padua  was  bound  by  the  late  peace.     "  This,"  he 

courteously  added,  "  is  but  a  small  gift  for  yourselves.     If 

your  sire  had  been  here,  we  would  have  shown  him  how 

deeply  we  honour  his  worth,  how  earnestly  we  desire  to 

call  him  brother  and  friend  !"    The  succeeding  festivities 

continued  during  twenty  days  ;  and  but  a  few  months  after 

their  celebration,  the  Duke  of  Milan  once  again  took  the 

field  against  this  valued  friend  and  brother  ! 

The  territories  of  Mantua  had  long  presented  an  alluring 
prize  to  the  ambition  of  Visconti ;  and  the  tie  of  kinsman- 
ship  by  which  he  was  bound  to  their  captain,  Francesco  di 
Gonzaga,  vvho  had  married  his  cousin   and  sister-in-law, 
were  httle  likely  to  restrain  him  from  spoliation  whenever 
opportunity  might  oflTer.     Yet  so  strict  at  one  time  had 
been  the  connexion  between  these  princes,  that  Gonzao-a 
was  employed  in  escorting  to  France,  in  1389,  a  daughter 
of  Visconti  betrothed  to  Louis,  Duke  of  Orleans  ;   and  the 
Duke  of  Milan  expressed  his  gratitude  by  a  request,  than 
which   none  during  the   middle  ages  was  considered  as 
more  expressive  of  affection  and  of  a  wish  to  confer  honour 
— that  his  friend  would  quarter  the  armorial  bearings  of 
the  Visconti  with  his  own.  ^     The  remainder  of  their  do- 
mestic history  forms  a  tragedy  replete  with  horror,  and  in- 
volving the  most  fiendish  atrocity  on  the  part  of  Galeazzo. 
Agnes,  the  consort  of  Gonzaga,  to  whom   she  had  borne 
four  children,  was  a  daughter  of  Bernabo  Visconti,  and 
stood,  therefore,  to  Galeazzo  in  the  double  relation  which 
we  have  just  noticed  ;  but  the  tyrant,  dreading  her  remem- 
brance of  the  murder  of  her  father  and  the  spoliation  of 
her  brothers  by  his  hand,  and  anxious  to  remove  the  influ- 
ence which  she  might  be  supposed  to  possess  over  her  hus- 
band's mind,  resolved  upon  her  destruction.     To  compass 
this  foul  end,  he  employed  agents  who  poisoned  the  ear  of 
Gonzaga  with  suspicions  of  his  wife's  fidelity,  and  who 

♦  Equicola  Commentari  Mantouani,  lib.  ii.  p.  111. 


1 


[ 


288 


WAR  BETWEEN  MILAN  AND  MANTUA. 


whispered   that,   in  conjunction   with   Visconti,   she   had 
planned  his  assassination.      Letters  in  the  handwriting  of 
the  Comte  de  Vertu,  concealed  for  the  purpose  in  her  apart- 
ment, and  confessions  wrung  by  torture  from  her  secretary, 
who,  from  a  vain  hope  of  mercy  avowed  whatever  was  re- 
quired, were  adduced  in  confirmation  of  her  guilt ;  and  the 
intrigue  succeeding  but  too  well,  the  miserable  and  deluded 
husband  issued  orders  for  her  execution.    But  a  short  time, 
however,  elapsed  before  the  innocence  of  the  murdered 
princess  was  established  on  proofs  not  admitting  doubt ; 
and  Gonzaga,  stung  with  remorse  for  the  perpetration  of 
the  great  crime  into  which  he  had  been  betrayed,  was 
doomed  also  to  defend  himself  against  accusations  of  cruelty, 
injustice,  and  blood-guiltiness  which  Galeazzo  unblushingly 
preferred  against  him  in  every  court  of  Italy.*     The  seeds 
of  war  between   these  princes  were,   therefore,  profusely 
sown.     Yet,  although  the  horrible  iniquity  which  we  have 
just  related  occurred  in  1391,  it  was  not  until  five  years 
afterward  that  hostilities  were  openly  declared,  and  even 
then  Galeazzo  was  the  aggressor. f     In  the  spring  of  1397, 
Giacopo  dal  Verme  invested  Mantua  with  twenty  thousand 
horse  and  fifteen  thousand  foot.     The  attempt  was  not  un- 
expected, and  the  combined  forces  of  Florence,  of  Padua, 
and  of  the  Marquis  of  Ferrara  signally  defeated  the  Mi- 
lanese captain  at  Governolo,  with  the  loss  of  ten  thousand 
men. 

This  severe  and  unlooked-for  check  inclined  Galeazzo  to 

Auff  28    ^^**^"  ^®  negotiation.     The  Venetians,  who  had  not 

declared  themselves,  but  who  secretly  favoured  and 

assisted  the  alliance,!  were  chosen  as  mediators.     But  the 

difficulties  arising  from  their  own  oblique  and  temporizing 

*  Platina,  Hist.  Mantuana,  iii.  ap.  Murat.  xx.  756. 

t  Scip.  Anjmirato,  1st.  Florentina  ad  ami.  1391,  lib.  xv.  vol.  iii.  p. 
813.  Sozomenus  Pistoriensis  (ap.  Murat.  xvi.  1143).  A  strange  asser- 
tion is  made  by  Johannes  de  Mui^sis  in  the  Chronicon  Placentinum  (ap. 
Murat.  xvi.  553),  that  Gonzaga  put  his  princess  to  death  solely  to  insult 
Visconti,  m  dedecus  dicti  Domini  Comitis  Virtutvm  et  non  propter  olinm 
causam.  This  accusation  of  gratuitous  wickedness,  so  alien  from  every 
other  record  of  Gonzaga,  is  repeated,  almost  in  the  same  words,  by  the 
anonymous  author  of  the  Annates  MtdioJanenses  (ibid.  816). 

t  Daru,  lib.  xi.  p.  209,  seems  to  make  the  Venetians  open  adherents 
to  this  alliance.  We  borrow  our  representation  from  Andrea  Gaiaro, 
(826),  who  states  that  Carrara,  with  very  great  difficulty,  obtained  from 
them  the  use  of  seven  armed  galleys,  which  were  probably  only  let  out 
on  hire. 


I 


/ 


• 


i 


^ 

J. 


SEVERITY  OF  VENIERO. 


289 


A.  D. 

1398. 


policy,  and  yet  more  from  the  subtle  and  perfidious  designs 
of  Visconti,  protracted  the  conferences  through  eight  months, 
and  even  at  the  close  of  that  long  period,  forbade  the  sig- 
nature of  peace.     It  was  not  possible  that  interests  so  con- 
flicting should  be  reconciled  while,  at  least  on  one  side,  there 
was  a  total  absence  of  good  faith  ;  and,  after  all,  the  diplomat- 
ists were  compelled  to  rest  content  with  the  arrangement  of 
a  ten  years'  truce,  during  which  all  parties  agreed  to 
remain  in  their  existing  condition.     This,  it  was 
plain,  was  but  an  expedient,  a  hollow  and  unsubstan- 
tial compact,  which  any  one  of  those  contracting  it  would 
unhesitatingly   violate    whenever    he   obtained    sufficient 
strength  to  do  so  with  advantage. 

The  reign  of  the  doge  Veniero  closed  during  the  last 
weeks  of  the  fourteenth  centur\%  and  the  native  historians 
are  loud  in  praise  of  the  benignity  of  his  sway.     It  was 
uninterrupted   by    domestic   commotion ;  and   during   the 
unusual  course  ot  eighteen  years,  the  capital  was  blessed 
with  continued  abundance.     One  instance  of  this  prince's 
rigorous  and  unbending  justice,  as  it  is  called,  has  been 
much  and,  there  can   be  little  doubt,  most  undeservedly 
vaunted.     The  lax  morals  of  an  Italian  city  suffered  little 
oflTence  from  the  intimate  bond  which  the  only  son  of  the 
doge  had  openly  contracted  with  the  wife  of  one  of  the 
chief  nobles ;  but  when,  in  a  moment  of  pettish  jealousy, 
the  lover  suspended  horns  over  the  porch  of  the  injured  hus- 
band's palace,  public  decency  was  considered  to  be  violated, 
and  the  vengeance  of  the  law  was  loudly  invoked  and  sternly 
execiited.     A  fine  of  one  hundred  ducats,  a  prohibition  from 
entering  the  quarter  of  the  city  inhabited  by  the  insulted 
lady,  and  an  imprisonment  for  two  months,  was  the  pim- 
ishment  assigned  for  this  youthful  outrage.     Veniero,  it  is 
said,   expressed  a  wish  to  pass  sentence  of  death;  and 
although  restrained  from  formally  pronouncing  a  judgment 
so  disproportionate  to  the  crime,  yet  by  the  strictness  with 
which  he  enforced  the  more  lenient  punishment  he  inflicted 
it  virtually.     The  young  man  was  seized  with  a  dangerous 
sickness   before   the   term   of  his  imprisonment  expired ; 
nevertheless,  the  obdurate  doge  refiised  to  permit  any  remis- 
sion of  his  penalty,  and  his  son  died  in  prison.     Unless 
the  law  adjudged  capital  punishment  under  lingering  agony 
to  the  offender's  transgression,  it  is  plain  that  Veniero  out- 
VoL.  I.— B  b 


1 


M 


■■Aia»>.     a-^^ 


i 
I 

I 


290 


CAMPANILE  DI  SAN  MARCO. 


steppecl  his  duty  by  this  mistaken  imitation  of  the  most  ques- 
tionable portion  of  Roman  stoicism. 

The  embellishment  of  the  capital,  interrupted  by  the 
troublous  war  of  Chiozza,  again  advanced  with  rapid  steps 
during  this  comparatively  tranquil  reign.  The  southern 
side  of  the  Piazza  di  San  Marco,  a  work  long  since  com- 
menced, was  now  completed  ;  and  the  Piazza  adjoining  the 
Rialto  was  paved  with  marble.  Besides  these,  a  far  greater 
ornament  was  added  to  the  city.  During  a  night  of  general 
illumination,  on  some  occasion  of  public  rejoicing,  the 
wooden  turret  which  then  crowned  the  Campanile  di  Sa7i 
Marco  caught  fire  and  was  destroyed.  The  foundations  of 
that  stupendous  tower,  which  rises  three  hundred  and  thirty 
feet  above  the  ground,  and  which  subsequently  was  ennobled 
by  becoming  the  study  of  Galileo,  were  laid  in  the  reign  of 
Pietro  Tribuno,  but  the  body  was  not  finished  till  within 
fifty  years  of  the  period  of  which  we  are  now  treating. 
Veniero,  after  the  above-named  accident,  built  the  upper  gal- 
lery of  stone,  added  the  pyramidal  summit  with  which  the 
Campanile  is  at  present  terminated,  and  enriched  the  pin- 
nacle with  a  profuse  coating  of  gold. 

Although  the  virtues  of  this  prince  secured  for  him  the 
general  love  of  his  people,  he  was  not  more  successful  than 
his  predecessors  in  escaping  the  jealous  restraint  of  the 
aristocracy,  and  fresh  trammels  were  imposed  upon  the 
small  remnant  of  his  personal  freedom.  The  title  Mon- 
signorc,  by  which  the  prince  had  been  hitherto  addressed, 
was  aboHshed,  and  no  higher  appellation  was  permitted  than 
Messer  il  Doge.  He  was  forbidden  to  retain  any  fiefs  with- 
out the  limits  of  the  state,  or  to  contract  any  marriage  for 
his  children,  unsanctioned  by  a  majority  of  two-thirds  of 
the  signory,  of  the  XL.,  and  of  the  great  council ;  and 
the  oflScers  attached  to  his  household  were  declared  inca- 
pable of  any  public  employment,  not  only  during  the  period  of 
their  actual  engagement  in  court  duties,  but  even  for  a  year 
after  they  might  have  resigned  those  appointments. 

Michaele  Steno,  a  procuratore  of  St.  Mark,  was  invested 
with  the  ducal  bonnet.     He  had  served  with  distinc- 

lAOO     ^^°"»  ^^  ^^^  ^^^^'  of  gentle  temper,  and  had  entered 
'    his  sixty-ninth  year — all  qualifications  which  ren- 
dered his  election  more  than  ordinarily  popular.     On  those 
accounts,  the  festivals  which  celebrated  his  accession  were 


THB  EMPEROR  ROBERT'S  VISIT  TO  VENICE.  291 

protracted  through  many  months  ;*  and  the  public  joy  was 
renewed  at  the  close  of  the  following  year,  when  the 
emperor  Robert  honoured  Venice  with  his  presence.    Z^^' 
On  the  deposition  of  Wenceslaus,  Robert  of  Bava- 
ria  had  been  called  to  the  German  throne ;  but  the  Duke  of 
Milan  having  refused  to  acknowledge  his  title,  hostilities 
ensued,  in  which  the  Florentines  and  Carrara  took  part  with 
the  new  emperor.     They  were  defeated  at  Brescia,   and 
Robert,  with  his  empress,  after  retreating  upon  Padua,  pro- 
ceeded to  Venice,  in  the  hope  of  obtaining  her  alliance.     He 
was  received  with  distinguished  honours.     The  Bucentaur, 
bearing  the  doge  and  signory,  met  the  imperial  travellers  at  San 
Giorgio,  where,  as  soon  as  the  emperor  had  passed  from  his  own 
vessel,  the  doge  uncovered,  and  threw  himself  upon  his  knees. 
He  was  instantly  raised  in  the  monarch's  arms,  and  the  two 
princes  seated  themselves  side  by  side,  while  the  barons  and 
nobles  stood  around.     The  Cornaro  palace  was  assigned 
for  the  residence  of  the  emperor,  that  of  Dandolo  for  the 
empress,  and  those  mansions,  which  immediately  fronted 
each  other,  were  connected  by  a  temporary  bridge.    Greatly, 
however,  as  the  signory  mistrusted  the  Duke  of  Milan,  and 
willingly  as  they  would  have  assisted  in  the  diminution  of 
his  increasing  power,  it  was  not  in  the  moment  of  his  suc- 
cess that  they  felt  disposed  to  break  with  him.     While, 
therefore,  they  entertained  their  imperial  visiter  with  mag- 
nificent spectacles,  they  decUned  any  open  espousal  of  his 
quarrel,  refused  even  his  solicitation  for  a  loan,  and  so  far 
disgusted  him  with  their  backwardness,  that  after  a  few  con- 
ferences, at  which  Carrara  also  was  present,  he  embarked 
privately  on  his  return  to  Germany,  without  taking  leave. 
So  avowed  a  manifestation  of  displeasure  ill  accorded  with 
the  views  of  a  government  whose  chief  aim  was  to  avoid 
any  decided  committal  of  itself ;  and  a  swift  vessel  was  des- 
patched to  overtake  the  emperor  and  solicit  his  return.     He 
consented,  and  remained  on  the  whole  six  weeks  in  Venice, 
with  a  mutual  understanding  that  politics  were  not  again  to 
be  discussed  during  his  stay. 

The  arms  of  Visconti,  in  the  following  year,  were 
chiefly  directed  against  the   Bolognese,   whom  he    .^'^' 
signally  defeated  on  the  26th  of  June,  at  Casalecchio.    ^^"'^* 

*  Of  these  festivals  a  particular  account  may  be  found  in  the  Verutia 
dtaariUa  of  fianaorino,  lib.  x;  p.  273. 


i 


Jl 


I 


BMiUliaii^.  <«j  — 


fi92 


DEATH  OP  TISCONTI. 


TIMOUR. 


298 


The  two  elder  sons  of  Carrara  were  taken  prisoners  in 
this  engagement  by  the  Duke  of  Mantua,  whom  the  fluctua- 
tions of  Italian  intrigue  had  again  arrayed  on  the  aide  of 
his  kinsman  ;  and  the  popularity  which  the  virtues  and  mild 
administration  of  their  father  had  established  is  strikingly 
evinced  by  the  liberal  offer  which  was  made  to  him  on  this 
sad  occasion  by  his  subjects.  A  deputation  from  the  various 
trades  and  chief  burghers  tendered  him  whatever  sum  was 
necessary  for  the  ransom  of  his  children  ;  but  with  equal 
liberality  he  declined  this  splendid  donation,  which  the  es- 
cape of  Francesco  Terzo,  within  a  few  days,  rendered  partly 
unnecessary.  The  confinement  of  his  younger  son,  Gia- 
como,  was  protracted  for  a  longer  period  ;  but,  in  the  end, 
he  also  evaded  the  vigilance  of  his  jailers. 

Before,  however,  this  latter  event  occurred,  the  ambitious 
course  of  the  Duke  of  Milan  was  cut  short  by  death.  The 
plague  had  again  spread  over  Lombardy  ;  and  it  was  now 
accompanied  by  the  appearance  of  a  comet,  destined,  as 
Gataro  fully  believes,  arxording  to  the  opinion  of  philosopherSf 
not  only  to  shake  pestilence  from  its  hair,  but  also  to  per- 
plex monarchs.*  Visconti,  in  order  to  avoid  infection, 
quitted  his  court  at  Pavia,  and  shut  hhnself  up  in  the  castle 
of  Marignano.  But  the  death-stroke  pursued  him  to  his 
retirement ;  and  although,  for  some  days,  he  was  kept  alive, 
like  the  elder  Carrara,  by  "  magical  liquors,"  he  felt  his  end 
approaching. !  With  a  cheerful  countenance,  he  summoned 
his  attendants  round  his  couch,  and  assured  them  of  his 
gratitude  to  God  for  so  visible  an  exhibition  of  his  mindful- 
ness of  him  in  that  blazing  star.  Having  then  given  instruc- 
tions for  his  interment,  and  portioned  his  dominions  among 

*  Paradise  Lost,  i,  598 ;  ii.  710 :  passages  which  are  borrowed  from 
Tasso. 

Qual  con  Ic  chiome  sanguinose,  horrende^ 
Splender  cnrneta  .fuol  per  Varia  ailusta, 
Che  i  regni  mvta,  e  i  feri  morbi  adduca, 
Ai  purpurei  tiranni  infaiista  luce. 

Ger.  Lib.  vii.  52. 

As  when,  high-flaming,  through  the  parched  air, 
A  blood-red  cornet  shakes  his  liorrid  hair, 
And  threatens,  to  despairing  man  below, 
Disease  and  battle,  pestilence  and  wo  ; 
States  see  their  doom  portended  by  his  rays, 
And  purple  tyrants  tremble  aa  they  gaze. 

Hunt,  vii.  430. 


his  children,  the  most  ambitious,  the  most  turbulent,  and  the 
most  unprincipled  sovereign  of  his  time   left  the   g^ 
fruits  matured  by  a  long  life  of  crime  to  be  withered, 
after  his  death,  by  the  cold  blasts  of  domestic  faction  and 
the  tempest  of  foreign  war. 


CHAPTER  X. 

FROM    A.  D.  1402    TO    A.  D.  1406. 

Venetian  and  Genoese  Fleets  observe  the  Progress  of  Timour — Carlo 
Zeno  and  Boucicault— Second  Battle  of  Sapienza— Distractions  of  Milan 
— Carrara  seizes  Verona — Attempts  Vicenza— It  is  previously  occupied 
by  the  Venetians— War  against  Carrara— He  is  betrayed  by  Count 
Manfredi — Loses  Verona — Siege  of  Padua — Pestilence— Carrara  burns 
the  Venetian  Camp— He  is  driven  into  his  Citadel— Accepts  a  Safe  con- 
duct to  Venice— Is  sentenced,  with  his  two  elder  Sons,  to  capital  Pun- 
ishment—Their Deatha 


DOGE. 

MiCHAELE  StKNO. 


During  these  events  in  Italy,  new  inquietudes  had  arisen 
in  the  East,  from  the  rapid  progress  of  a  conqueror  yet 
more  to  be  dreaded  than  Bajazet.  Timour,  having  over- 
run Asia,  was  invited  by  the  falling  Emperor  of  Constan- 
tinople to  free  him  from  the  oppressive  yoke  of  the  Otto- 
mans. The  Tartar  pressed  on  his  march  in  the  hope  of 
fresh  plunder ;  but  at  the  mouth  of  the  Don  he  was  met 
by  a  suppliant  train  of  merchants,  Genoese,  Catalonians,, 
and  Venetians,  who  implored  protection  for  their  commerc^^ 
The  Barbarian  swore  that  it  should  remain  unmolest^ ; 
and,  in  defiance  of  his  oath,  immediately  occupied  Asoph 
with  his  troops,  pillaged  and  burned  its  factories,  and  threw 
into  chains  such  Christians  as  escaped  the  sword.  As  he 
advanced  in  Natolia,  the  approaching  collision  of  the  two 
countless  hosts  which  blackened  the  plains  once  distin- 
guished by  the  contests  of  Pompey  and  Mithridates,  excited 

Bb2 


\. 


1 


A 


SkiMyttsEJia 


«94 


CARLO  ZENO  AND  BOUCICAITLT. 


the  most  lively  apprehensions  among  the  great  maritime 
A.  D      P^^^^^s  "f  Europe ;  and  when  Bajazet  was  overthrown 

1402.  ^^  Agora,  the  Dardanelles  were  observed  both  by 
a  Venetian  and  a  Genoese  squadron,  whose  avowed 

object  was  to  obstruct  the  passage  of  the  flyinw  Turks. 

The  fleet  of  the  latter  power  received  a  large  reinforce- 
A.  D.     ^^^^^  ^^  ^^^  spring  of  the  following  year,  under  the 

1403.  *^°^"'^^"^  of  the  Marechal  de  Boucicault,  the  governor 
•    to  whom  the  King  of  France  had  committed  the  ad- 
ministration of  Genoa.    Boucicault  had  fought  at  Nicopolis  ; 
and  two  days  after  that  defeat  he  had  been  brought  into  the 
presence  of  the  pitiless  conqueror,  bound,  naked,  and  classed 
among  the  nameless  herd  of  prisoners  whose  appearance 
promised  no  ransom,  and  who  were  therefore  destined  to 
butchery.     Already   had  the   work  of  blood   commenced, 
when  he  was  recognised  by  the  Count  of  Nevers,  who  with 
a  few  of  his  most  distinguished  companions  had  been  sepa- 
rated from  the  other  miserable  captives,  to  glut  the  avarice 
rather  than  the  cruelty  of  the  victor.     The  prince  threw 
himself  upon  his  knees  before  Bajazet,  declared  the  pris- 
oner's quality,  and  obtained  his  life.*     It  was  under  this 
commander  that  the  Genoese  reinforcement  arrived ;  and 
Venice,   perhaps  not  unjustly  suspicious  of  the   ulterior 
designs  of  her  former  rival,  hastened  to  counteract  them  by 
strengthening  her  own  naval  force  in  the  same  quarter. 
For  that  purpose  Carlo  Zeno,  altliough  now  a  prccuratore 
of  St.  Mark,  an  officer  who,  unless  in  the  utmost  emergency, 
seldom  quitted  the  city,  was  intrusted  with  the  command ; 
and   his   instructions   were,   to  place  all    the   colonies  in 
security,  and  to  watch  the  motions  of  the  Genoese,  but,  if 
possible,  to  avoid  hostilities. 

The  two  fleets,  nearly  equal  in  numbers,  first  met  in 
fnendly  guise  off  the  island  of  Rhodes;  but  the  communi- 
cations between  their  admirals  displayed  and  increased  their 
mutual  jealousy.  Boucicault,  perhaps,  is  scarcely  to  be 
exonerated  from  suspicion  of  a  treacherous  desio-n  to 
entrap  Carlo  Zeno ;  and  the  safety  of  the  latter  was  en- 

*  Froissart,  u.  672,  ut  s^ip.    Mr.  Jolines  has  preserved  a  verv  ffraohic 
Incident,  which  we  do  not  fmd  in  Lord  Bprners.    The  Count  of  Nevers 
rt  seems,  had  no  language  in  which  he  could  make  himself  intelligible  to 
B»jazet ;  he  therefore  "made  signs,  as  paying  from  one  hand  to  the  other, 

iS taS  "    xi  307 "'  ^     ^^'  '"""  °^  """"'^  ^°  '"""^^  ^^«  '^"g"  °f  ^he 


SECOND  BATTLE  OF  SAPIENZA. 


205 


tirely  owing  to  his  prudence.     When  the  Genoese  com- 
mander, pleading  indisposition  as  an  excuse,  requested  a 
conference  on  board  his  own  galley,  Zeno  answered,  that 
the  maritime  laws  of  Venice  forbade  him  from  quitting  the 
vessel  under  his  immediate  orders ;  and  when  invited  to 
combine  the  fleets  in  a  cruise  against  the  Turks,  in  which, 
no  doubt,  Boucicault  would  have  afl!ected  the  chief  com- 
mand, the  Venetian  replied,  that  he  was  not  permitted  to 
make  war  without  a  decree  of  the  senate.     After  this  un- 
satisfactory rencounter,  the  Venetians  m  fulfilment  of  their 
orders  proceeded  to  the  Morea,  while  the  Genoese  cruised 
along  the  ports  of  Syria.     At  lierytus,  a  rich  emporium  of 
Venetian  commerce,  and  little,  if  at  all,  frequented  by  the 
Turks,  Boucicault,    in  spite   of  the   reclamations  of  the 
resident  merchants,  landed  his  troops,  and  indiscriminately 
plundered  the  factories  both  of  Christian  and  Infidel.     The 
whole  line  of  Syrian  coast  was  visited  with  similar  lawless 
rapine  ;  and  the  calm  representations  addressed  by  Zeno  in 
the  first  instance  were  received  with  studied  insult.     "  I 
wage  no  war  with  Venice,"  was  the  taunting  and  evasive 
reply  of  Boucicault :  "  that  which  I  find  in  an  enemy's  ter- 
ritory I  treat  as  the  property  of  an  enemy.     If  any  harm 
has  been  done,  I  regret  it ;   but  the  evil  does  not  admit 
remedy."     The  remedy  thus  denied  was  discovered  by  the 
bravery  of  Zeno,  who  resolved  to  use  force  where  remon- 
strance had  fiiiled.     On  the  6th  of  October  both  fleets  an- 
chored in  sight  of  each  other  off  the  island  Sapienza,  a  spot 
once  fatal  to  the  Venetian  arms ;  and  there  an  engagement 
commenced  at  daybreak,  which  lasted,  with  great  slaughter 
on  both  sides,  during  four  hours.     Zeno,  although  equal  to 
his  adversary  in  ships,  was  far  inferior  in  men,  nor  was  he 
well  supported  by  his  captains.     His  own  galley  for  more 
than  an  hour  was  engaged  singly  against  that  of  Bouci- 
cault and   two  more  ;  one  attacking  his  prow,  the  others 
each  broadside.     Melted  pitch,  sulphur,  and  live  coals  were 
thrown  among  the  rigging,  brine  was  cast  in  the  mariners* 
eyes ;  and  at  length  Boucicault,  at  the  head  of  a  band  of  ■ 
French  distinguished  for  their  personal  strength,  attempted 
to  board,  protected  by  a  ceaseless  volley  of  javelins  and 
arrows  from  the  Genoese  bowmen.     Zeiio  himself,  as  he 
trod  the  deck  in  the  full  habiliments  of  command,  was  the 
chief  object  against  which  the  fury  of  the  combatants  was 


i< 


»t?" 


296 


ZENO'S  REMARKABLE  MANCEtJVRE. 


CRUELTY  TO  A  FRENCH  PRISONER. 


297 


directed ;  while  loudly  calling  on  him  by  name,  they 
swarmed  up  the  side  of  the  galley  with  fierce  and  menacing 
gestures.*  By  a  bold,  singular,  and  unexpected  manoeuvre 
the  assault  was  checked.  It  had  been  made  on  the  larboard 
quarter ;  and  Zeno,  after  ordering  the  guns,  ballast,  and 
whatever  other  weighty  material  was  at  hand,  to  be  rolled 
to  starboard,  commanded  his  crew,  by  a  sudden  impulse,  to 
press  downward  on  the  same  side  also  ;  thus  elevating  his 
vessel  high  ^bove  the  boarders,  and  at  the  same  time  pre- 
senting his  lower  bank  of  oars  as  a  palisade.  By  this 
means  the  enemy  were  for  the  most  part  prevented  from 
scaling  the  rampart  opposed  to  them ;  while  the  few  who 
gained  the  deck,  little  able  to  keep  their  footing,  rendered 
unsteady  by  the  motion  and  the  inclination  of  the  ship,  tot- 
tered, fell  headlong,  and  were  speedily  slain.  The  pressure 
on  the  opposite  quarter  gave  the  Venetians  there  also  an 
equal,  though  diiferent  advantage,  by  the  presentation  of 
their  whole  undivided  force  to  the  enemy  ;  all  attempt  from 
the  vessel  at  the  prow  was  impossible  during  this  manoeuvre ; 
and  the  three  hostile  galleys  were  at  length  beaten  off, 
though  not  until  Zeno  himself  was  wounded,  and  his  whole 
crew,  with  the  exception  of  thirty,  were  disabled.  At  the 
close  of  the  action  three  Genoese  vessels  were  captured,  and 
the  remaining  eight  escaped  with  much  loss  and  difficulty. 
One  of  the  prizes  was  secured  by  a  stratagem  scarcely  less 
extraordinary  than  that  practised  by  Zeno  himself.  A  Ve- 
netian storeship,  crowding  all  sail  upon  her  widely  ex- 
tended yardarms,  bore  down  upon  a  Genoese  galley ;  and 
the  crew,  when  alongside,  cutting  all  the  ropes  at  the 
same  moment,  let  fall  every  sail  upon  the  enemy's  deck, 
where  the  astonished  mariners,  struggling  like  birds  in  a 
net,  were  compelled  to  surrender.! 

Zeno,  with  no  less  modesty  in  reporting  than  valour  in 
obtaining  this  success,  in  his  official  despatch  to  the  signory 
omitted  all  mention  of  his  own  wound.  He  claimed  the 
victory  to  which  he  was  justly  entitled,  and  which  his  prizes 
indisputably  evinced ;  and  he  added,  that  if  his  officers  bad 

*  P.  Justiniani,  lib.  vi.  p.  126. 

t  P.  Justiniani,  ut  sup.  In  the  saloon  of  the  grand  council  was  a 
picture,  by  Bassano,  representing  this  stratajjem.  Sansovino  Venttia 
descritta,Uh.viii.p.249;  and  Giro\amo  Bardi  Dichiaratione  di  tutte  It 
Tstorie  che  si  contengono  nei  guadri,  &c.  p.  56,  Ven.  1587. 


[ 


fulfilled  their  duty,  not  one  Genoese  vessel  would  have  been 
saved.*  The  haughty  spirit  of  Boucicault  could  ill  brook 
this  publication  of  his  disgrace  ;  and  he  replied  in  a  long, 
hasty,  and  intemperate  cartel,  addressed  both  to  the  doge 
and  to  Zeno.  In  direct  terms,  according  to  the  naked 
fashion  of  the  times,  he  threw  the  lie  in  their  teeth  ;t  and 
in  order  to  establish  his  own  contrary  assertions,  confiding, 
as  he  said,  in  Divine  justice,  in  the  blessed  Mother  of  God, 
and  in  St.  George,  he  challenged  either  of  them  to  meet 
him  in  the  lists,  and  offered  his  opponent  considerable  ad- 
vantage of  numbers.  He  would  fight  with  five  against  six 
— ten  agahist  twelve — fifteen  against  eighteen — twenty 
against  twenty-four;  or,  as  a  course  which  might  better 
decide  the  question  of  naval  superiority,  he  would  meet 
galley  against  galley,  his  own  being  manned  by  none  but 
Genoese  and  French,  that  of  his  enemy  by  none  but  Vene- 
tians.t  The  signory  disregarded  this  idle  gasconade  ;  and, 
content  with  the  substantial  evidence  of  facts,  they  pointed 
to  the  captured  vessels  which  had  been  brought  to  port,  and 
permitted  the  vanquished  to  prate  about  his  victory. 

An  atrocious  instance  of  cruelty,  exhibiting  a  petty  spirit 
of  revenge  most  unworthy  of  a  great  nation,  sullied  the 
glory  of  this  triumph.  One  of  the  prisoners,  a  Frenchman, 
irritated  by  defeat  and  groaning  under  captivity,  expressed 
a  hope  that  he  might  yet  one  day  wash  his  hands  in  Ve- 
netian blood.  The  evil  omen  of  the  Barbarian,  says  the 
courtly  native  historian,  grated  on  the  ears  of  the  senators, 
and  with  one  voice  they  ordered  the  miserable  offender  to 
be  hanged  between  the  Red  Columns.^  Sabellico  neglects 
to  add,  that  with  a  refinement  of  vengeance  they  instructed 
the  executioner  to  gash  the  soles  of  the  expiring  victim's 
feet,  in  order  that  he  might  leave  traces  of  his  own  blood  on 
the  pavement  of  the  Piazzetta^  and  thus  more  distinctly 
mark  the  failure  of  his  indiscreet  aspiration.il 

A  few  months  of  straggling  hostilities  succeeded  the  battle 
of  Sapienza.  France  at  first  appeared  willing  to  support 
the  declarations  of  Boucicault ;  and  certain  Venetian  mer- 

*The  original  despatch  is  given  by  Sanuto. 

t  Their  letters,  he  said,  were  mendaciis  plenaset  doUs — certe  mirari' 
dum,  licet  mentiendi  vestra  consuetudo  cognoscatur,  &c. 
i.  Stella  Annales  Genuenses,  ap.  Muratori,  xvii.  1203. 
(s  Sabellico,  Decad.  ii.  lib.  viii. 
{]  BerabOjthe  continuator  of  the  Chronicle  of  Dandolo,  ap.  Mur,  xii.  519w 


i 


I. 


) 


298 


TROtJBLE.«?    AT  MTT  AV. 


298 


TROUBLES  AT  MILAN. 


chants,  attending  the  fair  of  Marseilles,  were  thrown  into 
prison,  and  their  effects  confiscated.     Some  trading  ships 
also  m  the  Greek  seas  fell  into  the  hands  of  the  Genoese 
cruisers.     But  when  Venice  aroused  herself,  and  appeared 
to  be  arming  in  earnest,  she  was  met  by  submissions,  and  a 
A.  D.     negotiation  terminated  in  peace,  on  the  basis  of  mu- 
1404     *"^'  restitution  and  the  payment  of  an  indemnity  to 
the   Venetians  for  their  losses   at   Berytus.     One 
monument  of  this  short  war  endured  even  to  our  own  times. 
Timour,  freed  by  their  internal  dissensions  from  the  ob- 
servation of  the  two  Euroi)ean  fleets,  pressed  his  conquests 
among  the  fastnesses  of  Albania,  where  a  petty  tribe,  the 
inhabitants  of  Parga,   abandoned   their  ancient  city,   and 
took  refuge  on  an  impregnable  rock  in  the  sight  of  Corfu, 
to  which  they  gave  the  name  of  their  former  settlement! 
A.  D.     7^9  neighbourhood  of  a  Venetian  garrison   soon 
1401.    "i^^^^d  or  compelled  them  to  submit  to  the  protection 
*    of  the  republic,  under  which,  however,  they  main- 
tained a   more   than  nominal   independence.     The   spirit 
which  animated  this  noble-minded  band  remained  in  their 
descendants  after  a  lapse  of  four  centuries  ;  and  the  admira- 
tion which  an  Englishman  cannot  but  profoundly  cherish 
^^J/^^^^  P"^®  ^<^ve  of  freedom  is  mingled  with  bitterness 
of  feeling,  when  he  brings  to  mind  the  causes  which  led  to 
their  second  expatriation  in  1819. 

The  death  of  Galeazzo  Visconti  was  the  signal  for  an- 
archy throughout  the  Milanese  states.  All  the  three  sons 
among  whom  he  had  divided  his  power  were  minors,  one  of 
them  was  illegitimate,  and  the  regency  was  administered  by 
the  widowed  dutchess,  Catarina  of  Visconti,  a  daughter  of 
Bernabo.  The  council  which  assisted  her  was  composed 
partly  of  personal  favourites  of  the  late  duke,  more  distin- 
guished for  talent  than  for  birth,  partly  of  the  ancient  and 
powerful  nobility ;  and  between  these  discordant  interests 
reigned  an  ill-dissembled  jealousy,  which  soon  openly  exhi- 
bited Itself  m  deeds  of  violence  and  blood.  The  state-prison 
changed  their  inhabitants  according  to  the  predominance  of 
either  faction  ;  and  Catarina,  not  sufficiently  stroncr  for  the 
open  exercise  of  authority,  employed  secret  executions,  and, 
It  may  be  feared,  yet  darker  means,  to  free  herself  from 
those  whom  she  most  dreaded.  Every  town  throughout 
Lombardy  was  a  prey  to  the  petty  tyranny  of  some  noble, 


GULIELMO  DELLA  SCALA. 


299 


A.  D. 

1403. 


who  sought,  amid  the  convulsions  of  his  country,  to  establish 
in  it  a  separate  dominion.  Of  the  neighbouring  powers 
who  might  be  expected  to  derive  profit  from  these  troubles, 
few  were  more  to  be  feared,  for  none  had  a  heavier  debt  of 
injury  to  repay,  than  Francesco  da  Carrara;  and  the 
dutchess  early  conciliated  him  by  the  promised  cession  of 
Feltre  and  Belluno.  The  Lord  of  Padua  asked  also  for 
Vicenza ;  but  through  the  mediation  of  Venice,  he  was 
content  to  withdraw  this  demand.  The  treaty,  however,  was 
violated  by  the  Milanese  at  the  time  named  for  its  comple- 
tion ;  and  Carrara,  justly  indignant  at  this  new  breach  of 
faith,  and  having  in  vain  appealed  to  the  signory, 
from  whom  he  received  an  ambiguous  answer, 
invaded  the  Veronese,  but  was  compelled  to  retire. 
In  the  following  spring,  he  concerted  an  alliance  with  a 
prince  who,  though  possessing  neither  treasure  nor 
territory,  advanced  pretensions  which  might  be  use-  -iaoa 
fully  employed.  Gulielmo  della  Scala  laid  claim  to 
Verona,  which  had  been  wrested  from  his  late  father,  An- 
tonio ;  and  he  promised  to  return  whatever  assistance 
Carrara  might  afford  him  towards  the  recovery  of  his  patri- 
mony, by  engaging  its  whole  force,  when  at  his  disposal,  in 
the  projected  attack  upon  Vicenza.  The  enterprise  was 
successful ;  partly  by  secret  communication  with  the  inhabit- 
ants, partly  by  force  of  arms,  the  Paduans  entered  Verona, 
and  proclaimed  Della  Scala  its  lord.  Scarcely  a  fortnight, 
however,  after  his  restoration,  Gulielmo  died  of  a  disease 
with  which  he  had  been  long  afflicted  ;  and  so  familiar  was 
Italy  with  the  poisoner's  cup,  so  bitter  was  the  hatred  fos- 
tered by  the  enemies  of  Carrara,  so  necessary  did  their  own 
crimes  render  it  that  they  should  endeavour  to  sully  the 
memory  of  him  upon  whom  they  were  perpetrated,  that  the 
death  of  his  friend  and  ally  has  been  repeatedly  imputed  to 
the  Lord  of  Padua  himself.  If  the  loftiness  of  his  general 
character,  his  frank,  open,  and  undisguised  bearing,  his 
nobleness  and  generosity  of  spirit  are  not  in  themselves  suf- 
ficient to  disprove  this  detestable  charge  to  our  complete  satis- 
faction, yet  even  those  who  judge  men's  actions  by  the  more 
staid  and  measured  rules  of  utility  must  consent  to  acquit 
him,  unless  they  can  discover  an  adequate  motive  for  his  guilt. 
His  interests,  on  the  contrary,  demanded  that  this  prince 
should  live.   Delia  Scala  left  two  sons,  who  were  immediately 


h 


>\ 


1! 


i 


i  *?*»J^  I'gt 


jwafartSArfato-a-rf : ;  - 


300 


ATTEMPT  ON  VICENZA. 


invested  with  their  father's  inheritance  ;  and  if  Carrara  had 
assassinated  his  tried  and  faithful  partisan,  he  must  have 
done  so  only  that  he  might  substitute  in  his  place  two  un- 
j.roved  and  inexperienced  youths,  who  soon  showed  them- 
selves  unworthy  of  his  confidence.-* 

This  conquest  of  Verona  had  been  undertaken  without 
the  approbation  of  Venice  ;  and  before  the  attempt  Carlo 
Zeno  had  been  despatched  to  Padua,  with  instructions  to 
mediate  between  the  disputants.     Carrara  inflexibly  replied 
tliat  the  fitting  season  was  now  come  in  which  he  might 
obtain  satisfaction  for  his  wrongs,  and  he  refused  to  listen 
to  the  ambassador's  representation  that  Venice  had  left  far 
greater  wrongs  unrevenged.     An  evil  omen  was  remarked 
as  the  prince  mustered  his  troops  in  the  palace-square  of  the 
captured  city.     He  had  delivered  his  great  banner,  bearing 
a  red  cross  on  a  white  ground,  and  quartered  with  the  ams 
ot  Carrara,  to  the  custody  of  one  of  his  noblest  ofRcars : 
and  as  the  standard-bearer  fixed  the  staff  in  the  rest  at  his 
saddle-bow,  It  fell  from  his  hands,  while  murmurs  were 
heard  among  the  spectators,  "  This  is  God's  judgment  !»t 
Undismayed  by  this  omen,  which  seems  to  have  deeply 
mipressed   his  fi^llowers,  Carrara  directed  his  eldest  son, 
irancesco  Terzo,  to  march  on  Vicenza,  having  previously 
expressed  his  wish  to  the  princes  Delia  Scala  that  one  of 
them  would  precede  him  ;  but,  little  grateful  for  the  impor- 
tant  benefit  recently  conferred  upon  them,   they  refused 
obedience.     When   Francesco  Terzo  appeared  before  the 
walls,  he  was  rudely  handled  in  a  skirmish,  and  compelled 
to  withdraw  to  his  camp,  with  a  severe  wound  in  the  face. 
Un  the  following  morning  loud  shouts  were  heard  from  the 
city,  mingled  with  the  pealing  of  bells  and  the  thunder  of 
artillery      The   banner  of  Milan  was   lowered,  and   the 
delighted  eyes  of  the  young  Carrara  imagined  that  he  beheld 
the  ensign  of  his  own  house  unfurled  in  its  place.     The 
colours  were  very  similar,  and  the  distance  was   consid- 
erable ;  but  as  a  second  standard  rose  over  a  nearer  gate, 

mJf\  Hh  vHi\°Hn'^^  "i^K  ^^  ®i»™o"^i  (»^)  on  both  sides.    Sabellico 
tAndroa  Gataro,  880. 


OUTRAGE  ON  A  VENETIAN  TRUMPET.         301 

he  descried,  with  astonishment  and  mortification,  the  winged 
lion  of  St.  Mark.  Catarina  had  successfully  negotiated 
with  Venice ;  and  Dal  Verme,  retaining  all  his  deceased 
sovereign's  hatred  against  Carrara,  had  prevailed  upon  the 
dutchess  to  barter  for  the  alliance  of  the  signory  by  surren- 
dering Vicenza  to  their  protection  ;  and,  careless  of  the  loss 
to  his  country,  so  as  it  did  not  confer  benefit  on  the  Paduans, 
he  admitted  a  large  Venetian  force  within  the  walls,  and 
acknowledged  their  supremacy. 

This  iniquitous  negotiation  must  be  attributed  in  great 
measure  to  the  ambition  felt  by  the  doge  Steno,  that  his 
reign  might  be  distinguished  by  an  enlargement  of  territoiy ; 
for  although  the  Venetian  government  was  seldom  choice 
as  to  its  means  of  acquisition,  and  the  bribe  offered  was 
most  alluring,  yet  the  council  hesitated  till  the  Milanese 
advanced  their  biddings.  Feltre  and  Belluno  were  added 
to  Vicenza,  and  the  bargain  was  finally  struck  by  the  sur- 
render of  the  whole  territory  on  this  side  the  Adige.  Even 
after  these  discussions  there  was  not  wanting  in  the 
council  a  feeling  of  justice  and  honour  which,  but  for  a 
stratagem  of  the  doge,  might  have  prevented  the  nefarious 
compact.  He  found  a  pretext  to  purge  the  assembly  of  all 
those  nobles  who  were  opposed  to  his  design  ;  yet  even 
then  the  decision  for  which  he  struggled  was  at  last  con- 
firmed by  the  majority  of  only  a  single  voice. 

The  news  of  his  unexpected  disappointment  was  received 
by  Francesco  Novello  with  his  customary  evenness  of 
temper.  He  handed  the  despatch  which  announced  it  to 
Brunone  and  Antonio  della  Scala,  and  with  a  brief  remark — 
"  Farewell  to  Vicenza  I  This  arises  from  your  refusal," — he 
turned  to  some  other  business,  while  the  perfidious  youths 
lost  no  time  in  framing  their  own  secret  arrangements  with 
Venice.  In  the  camp  before  Vicenza,  however,  a  widely 
different  spirit  was  manifested.  When  a  trumpet  from  the 
garrison  announced  that  the  city  had  surrendered  itself  to 
the  protection  of  Venice,  Francesco  Terzo  ordered  him  to 
retire,  and  not  to  return  without  a  safe-conduct.  On  the 
evening  of  the  same  day,  the  messenger  reappeared  with 
the  pennant  of  Vicenza,  and  in  the  name  of  Venice,  com- 
manded the  Paduans  to  raise  the  siege  and  withdraw. 
Francesco  denied  his  authority,  pointed  to  the  arms  of 
Vicenza  on  his  pennant,  which,  had  he  been  an  envoy  of 

Vol.  I.— C  c 


:v^ 


-} 


I 


k 


i  J.JagKiiiBaLe. 


■■-  >■»— ^it.'jivir'aeBif.e^j.us^  -jg'j^»^.  -, 


302 


BREACH  WITH  VENICE. 


the  signory,  would  have  borne  their  device  ;  and  then,  with 
angry  menaces  of  summary  punishment  if  he  returned,  he 
dismissed  him  unhurt.  On  the  morrow,  the  same  trumpet 
again  sought  the  camp,  bearing  now  a  Venetian  pennant, 
but  still  unprovided  with  a  safe-conduct.  The  outposts, 
indignant  at  these  repeated  insults  to  their  prince,  hastily 
surrounded  the  messenger,  put  him  to  the  sword,  and  threw 
his  body  into  the  city  ditch.  Francesco  was  displeased 
with  the  violence,  but  little  anticipated  the  terrible  ven- 
geance with  which  it  was  to  be  repaid,  and  probably  forgot 
the  transaction  as  insijrnificant." 

The  Lord  of  Padua  immediately  hastened  in  person  to 
Vicenza,  and  gave  orders  for  an  assault  on  the  very  night 
of  his  arrival.     Before,  however,  the  troops  were  put  in 
motion  a  Venetian  courier  placed  in  his  hands  a  despatch 
bearing  the  leaden  seal  of  the  republic,  which  charged  him, 
on  pain  of  immediate  war,  to  desist  from  his  enterprise.    He 
instantly  countermanded  the  assault,  and  broke  up,  on  the 
next  morning,  for  Padua.     Then  having  fully  ascertained 
the  treacherous  intrigues  which  the  two  princes  Delia  Scala 
were  concerting  with  Venice,  he  threw  them  into  confine- 
ment, and,  proceeding  with  the  Lady  Taddea  to  Verona,  he 
assumed  its  sovereignty  in  his  own  name,  as  a  punishment 
for  the  ingratitude  of  the  masters  whom  he  had  restored, 
and  who  had  proved  themselves  undeserving.     His  chief 
wishes  were  now  directed  to  an  adjustment  with  Venice ; 
but  the  signory  was  implacable.     They  felt  that  Carrara 
Was  within  their  toils,  and   his  destruction  was  resolved 
upon ;  so  that  to  his  offer  of  holding  all  his  territories  in 
fee  from  the  republic,  they  replied  only  by  demanding  in- 
demnities which  he  had  not  power  to  furnish ;    and  they 
perpetually  reverted  to  the  murder  of  the  trumpet,  as  having 

*  In  relating  this  incident,  we  have  followed  the  miniUe  and  precise 
narrative  of  dJataro  (883),  wliich  bears  with  it  strong  marks  of  truth. 
Daru  has  adopted  another  statennent  nnost  hostile  to  Francesco  Novello, 
and  has  made  him  give  orders  for  an  outrage  yet  more  cruel  than  the 
infliction  of  death— to  cut  off  the  nose  and  ears  of  the  trumpet,  and  send 
him  back  with  a  declaration  of  war.  Yet  it  is  plain  that  Francesco  No- 
vello at  the  time  was  in  Verona,  not  at  Vicenza.  Bembo,  the  continuator 
of  the  chronicle  of  Dandolo,  vouches  for  this  barbarous  mutilation,  but 
attributes  it  to  Francesco  Terzo,  with  the  addition  of  a  cruel,  stupid, 
and  unfeeling  mockery,—"  Let  us  make  from  this  trumi)€t  the  lion  of 
St.  Mark !"  As  the  lion  possessed  both  nose  and  ears,  we  are  at  a  loss 
to  discover  the  hidden  point  of  this  brutal  jesi. 


DISCUSSIONS  IN  THE  PADUAN  COtJNCIL.       303 

placed  him  without  the  pale  of  international  law.  Even 
while  his  ambassadors  were  receiving  audience,  the  doge 
gave  orders  to  cut  the  embankment  of  the  Anguillera  in 
three  places  ;  thus,  by  pouring  destruction  on  his  unoffend- 
ing subjects,  offering  a  foretaste  of  the  bitterness  with 
which  their  lord  was  to  be  visited.  The  envoys  were  dis- 
missed, and  the  banner  of  St.  Mark  was  raised  on  a  bas- 
tion in  the  Paduan  territory,which  had  been  insulated  by  the 
inundation. 

Francesco  communicated  to  his  great  council  the  rejection 
of  his  proposals  ;  and  that  he  might  fall  at  least  with  dig- 
nity, he  urged  them  to  consent  to  war.  His  design  was 
opposed  by  Galeazzo  de'  G  atari,  the  elder  of  the  two  chroni- 
clers who  have  guided  us  through  these  passages  of  history. 
This  faithful  senator  pointed  to  the  miseries  which  Francesco 
Vecchio  had  brought  down  upon  himself  and  his  country, 
by  rousing  the  unforgiving  and  unappeasable  hatred  of 
Venice.  Peace,  he  said,  ought  to  be  secured,  be  the  terms 
what  they  miglit ;  for  upon  its  conclusion  depended  the  wel- 
fare or  the  ruin  of  Padua.  This  seasonable  counsel  was 
resisted,  among  others,  by  Amorato  Pelliciaro,  a  rich  mer- 
chant, who  offered  a  thousand  ducats  towards  defraying  the 
expenses  of  war,  and  blindly  prophesied  that  riijht  must 
prevail.  A  brother  senator  applauded  the  rash  speech,  and 
compared  the  orator  to  that  Crastinus  who  struck  the  first 
blow  for  Cffisar  against  Pompey  in  Thessaly  ;  "  forgetting," 
as  Gataro*  touchingly  winds  up  his  vivid  narrative  of  this 
debate,  "  the  lines  in  which  Lucanf  curses  that  Crastinus 
as  the  cause  of  all  the  blood  that  was  shed  in  the  cruel  war 
that  followed.     But  to  this  opinion  the  signor  inclined,  and 

*  Andrea  Gataro,  890. 

*  Dii  tibi  non  mortem,  qua;  cimrtis  poena  parnhir, 
Sed  sensiim  post  fata  tvce  dent,  Crastine,  morti ! 
Cuius  torta  manu  mmmisit  lancea  helium, 
Primaque  Thessaliam  Romano  sanguine  tinxit. 

Pharsalia,  vii.  470. 
For  him,  ye  gods,  for  Crastinus,  whose  spear, 
With  impious  eagerness,  began  the  war. 
Some  more  than  common  punishment  prcjiare  • 
Beyond  the  grave,  long,  lasting  plagues  ordain, 
Surviving  sense,  and  never-ceasing  j>ain  ! 

RowE,  vii.  697. 
See  also  Caesar,  De  Bell.  Civ.  iii.  91-98. 


hAhaaftgsafeiiaaiaMifr^icsafe  ■ 


304 


MUSTER  OF  THE  PADUAN  ARMY. 


ADVANCE  OF  THE  VENETIANS. 


305 


war  was  declared.  Accursed  be  Amorato,  the  author  of  a 
measure  which  brought  fast  on  the  destruction  of  Padua, 
and  the  downfall  of  the  noble  house  of  Carrara  !" 

It  was  at  midsummer  that  Carrara  solemnly  denounced 
war  agamst  Venice.      His  sole  ally  was  Nicolo  d'Este 
Count  of  Ferrara,  upon  whom,  terrified  by  the  overwhelm- 
ing force  of  his  enemies,  little  reliance  could  be  placed.    The 
command  of  thirty  thousand  condottieri  was  intrusted,  by 
the  signory,  to  Malatesta  of  Pesaro,  and  Savello  a  Roman 
captain  ;  and  Carlo  Zeno  was  attached  to  them  as  one  of 
the  provveditori.     Carrara,  after  a  successful  incursion  into 
the  Frevisano,  confined  himself  to  the  defensive,  throwino- 
up  lines  and  constructing  a  series  of  intrenchments  on  its 
marshy  frontiers  ;  and  one  of  these  works  appears  to  have 
struck  the  invaders  with  extreme  wonder.     In  a  few  hours 
a  ditch  was  formed  of  great  depth,  and  thirty  feet  in  width, 
surmounted  by  an  impregnable  rampart,  at  which  the  Ve- 
netians, we  are  told,  gazed  with  astonishment,  firmly  be- 
heving  It  to  have   been  effected  by  the  Devil,  and  not  by 
human   engineers.*     The  muster  of  the  Paduan  forces 
within  these  lines,  as  described  by  Gataro,  might  aflford  a 
subject  for  a  painter.     «  Every  one  seeming  more  eager  than 
another,  they  presented  themselves  with  their  best  equip- 
ments.     They  came   with   bright  weapons,   embroidered 
coats,  and  blazoned  devices,  indicating  the  antiquity  of  their 
families— with  naked  cuirasses,  burnished  and  blazing  like 
the   sun— targets   and  ghiaverins— arbalists    and   bows— 
bombardels,  lances,  and  shields.     Their  dear  and  much- 
loved  lord,  vvearing  an  embroidered  coat  over  his  armour, 
glanced,  with  a  proud  and  joyful  eye,  along  the  gallant  line, 
and  then  inspected  the  men,  squadron  by  squadron,  show- 
mg  aglad  and  gracious  aspect,  and  addressing  words  of  en- 
couragement to  them  as  he  walked  his  horse  slowly  alonff."t 
Little,  however,  notwithstanding  the  natural  strength  of 
the  country  which  they  occupied,  could  be  hoped  from  twelve 
thousand  men,  opposed  to  nearly  thrice  their  number  :  and 
the  activity  of  Zeno  ere  long  found  means  to  penetrate 
their  lines.     Undertaking  a  personal  reconnoissance,  on  a 
September  night,  sometimes  wading  to  his  very  shoulders, 
sometimes  swimmmg  in  the  marshes,  he  satisfied  himself 


that  the  passage,  though  difficult,  was  practicable.*  When 
Cnce  assured  that  it  was  possible  to  eflfect  it,  he  did  not 
hesitate  to  make  the  attempt ;  and  the  whole  territory  be- 
yond the  Brenta  was  speedily  overrun  in  consequence  of 
his  success.  Venice  had  three  powerful  armies  in  her  pay ; 
her  disbursements  amounted  to  120,000  ducats  each  month ; 
and,  since  the  days  of  Frederic  Barbarossa,  such  an  assem- 
blage of  troops  had  never  been  seen  in  Italy. 

This  frontier  line,  however,  was  not  maintained  by  the 
invaders  without  much  bloodshed ;  Savello  was  attacked 
and  beaten  back  from  it,  and  the  chance  of  battle  led  him 
to  a  personal  encounter  with  Francesco.  Their  lances 
were  shivered  at  the  first  onset,  and  each  swayed  back  to 
his  horse's  croup ;  recovering  themselves,  they  drew  their 
swords,  and  Carrara,  with  a  single  blow,  which  descended 
to  his  antagonist's  vizor,  cleft  the  argent  lion  from  his 
helmet.  His  own  crest  underwent  the  same  fate  ;  but  a 
second  stroke  dashed  Savello's  vizor  into  fragments,  and, 
his  sword  being  at  the  same  tune  broken  at  the  hilt,  he  was 
compelled  to  spur  his  horse  to  flight.!  Malatesta,  who 
was  on  ill  terms  with  his  brother-general,  openly  expressed 
satisfaction  at  this  discomfiture  ;  and  not  long  afterward, 
having  incurred  yet  further  suspicion  by  his  imprudence, 
he  was  removed  from  his  command,  which  was  bestowed 
upon  Savello. 

The  second  line  of  defence  presented  obstacles  not  to  be 
surmounted  during  this  campaign,  and  the  hostile  armies 
occupied  their  winter-quarters  towards  the  close  of  Novem- 
ber. A  bitter  domestic  sorrow  awaited  Carrara  in  the  death 
of  the  Lady  Taddea ;  and  while  smarting  under  this  blow, 
yet  more  grievous  to  him  than  the  dangers  of  his  princi- 
pality, he  received  information  that  Savello  had  broken  up 
from  his  cantonments,  reoccupied  his  summer  positions, 
and,  in  the  very  heart  of  December,  guided  to  undefended 
passages  by  some  peasants  whom  he  had  bribed,  had  estab- 
lished himself  in  the  rich  Piovado  di  Sacco,  the  granary  of 
Lombardy.  In  an  attempt  to  dislodge  the  invaders,  Car- 
lara  was  painfully  wounded,  and  for  a  while  obliged  to 
withdraw  from  active  command. 

The  arms  of  Padua  had  been  no  less  unfortunate  in  the 


l» 


*  Andrea  Gataro,  893. 


t  Ibid.  897. 


*  Vita  Caroli  Zeni,  ap.  Muratori,  xix.  338. 

Cc2 


t  Andrea  Gataro,  699. 


306 


TREACHERY  OF  COUNT  MANFRED!, 


TREASON  OF  GIACOMO  DA  CARRARA. 


307 


Veronese,  where  Francesco  di  Gonzaga,  Lord  of  Mantua, 
and  Giacopo  dal  Verme  had  gained  most  of  the  strongholds. 
The  inhabitants  of  that  district  were  ill  affected  to  Carrara, 
and  backward  in  his  defence ;  and  even  in  his  own  more 
immediate  court  and  camp,  treachery  was  undermining  the 
small  remnant  of  his  power.     The  Venetian  army,  after 
Savello's  defeat,  had  encamped  at  Nogara,  where,  by  its 
losses  and  divisions,  it  was  reduced  to  twelve  thousand 
men,  while  Carrara  had  now  no  less  than  sixteen  thousand 
at  his  disposal.     The  position  also  of  the  Venetians  was  haz- 
ardous ;  for,  if  the  bank  of  the  Brenta  in  their  rear  were 
cut,  retreat  became  impossible,  and  Francesco,  perceiving 
his  advantage  with  a  rapid  eye,  felt  secure  of  victory.     His 
wounds  still  kept  him  from  the  field,  but  he  communicated 
his  plans  to  Count  Manfredi  di  Barbiano,  to  whom,  jointly 
with  Francesco  Terzo,  he  delegated  the  command.     The 
Paduans,  high  in  hope  and  eager  for  battle,  marched  for 
Nogara,  which  they  reached  on  Christmas  eve,  when  the 
generals  despatched  a  trumpet  bearing  their  gauntlets  of 
defiance  as  a  challenge  to  Savello  for  combat  on  the  mor- 
row.    The  news  of  his  acceptance  was  received  with  shouts 
of  joy.      Late  in  the  evening,  however,  a  messenger  on 
horseback  arrived  from   the  Venetian  camp,   laden  with 
presents  from  Savello  to  Manfredi.     They  were  such  as  the 
courtesy  of  war  occasionally  interchanges,  luxuries  for  the 
table  ;  four  large  geese  unplucked,*  some  watermelons,  and 
a  few  flasks  of  Malvoisie,  and,  but  for  the  message  which 
accompanied  them  and  the  subsequent  conduct  of  Manfredi, 
they  would  not  have  occasioned   suspicion.     The  bearer 
significantly  repeated  to  the  count   the   instructions  with 
which  he  had  been  charged,  "  that  he  should  not  eat  the 
feathers.       Manfredi  smiled,  and   accepted   the   presents, 
withm  which  it  was   afterward  believed  twelve  thousand 
ducats  were  concealed.      At   daybreak,  when   Francesco 
*u  T,Y^^  marshalling  his  line,  Manfredi  refused  to  take 
the  held,  and  commenced  a  retreat.     On  his  appearance  at 
Padua,  Carrara,  who  felt  no  doubt  of  his  treachery,  spared 
his  life,  but  stripped  him  of  his  command,  and  sentenced 
nun  to  banishment. 

The  new  year  witnessed  the  defection  of  Nicolo  of  Fer- 

*Oche(Ul  Piovado^on  le  penne  tutu  morfe.— Andrea  Gataro,  911.  ' 


rara.    His   capital  was  suffering  from  scarcity,  he  was 
pressed  on  all  sides  by  the  Venetian  forces,  and  his 
subjects  were  so  unfriendly  to  the  cause  which  he    ,^^c 
had  espoused,  that  he  had  reason  to  fear  even  for  his 
life.     He  concluded,  therefore,  a  separate  treaty,  the  chief 
terms  of  which  involved  the  surrender  of  Polesina  di  Ro- 
vigo,  and  the  dismantling  of  his  fortresses.     The  haughty 
republic  added  one  other  condition  more  degrading  to  the 
dignity  of  a  sovereign — that  he  should  repair  to  Venice  in 
order  to  solicit  pardon  from  the  doge,  and  to  swear  that  he 
would  deny  all  succour  for  the  future  to  the  Lord  of  Padua. 
This  compulsory  desertion  by  his  son-in-law  was  to  Carrara 
more  a  subject  of  regret  than  of  complaint ;  but  the  treach- 
ery of  a  much  nearer  connexion  awakened  his  indignation 
as  well  as  his   sorrow.     His  half-brother,  Giacomo,  the 
former  companion  of  his  many  dangers,  had  been  seduced 
hy  the  Venetians  to  betray  Padua  into  their  hands,  on  con- 
dition of  enjoying  the  whole  property  of  the  signor  and  the 
pillage  of  ten  of  the  wealthiest  houses,  of  being  presented 
with  a  palace  at  Venice,  being  enrolled  a  member  of  the 
grand  council,  and  receiving  a  payment  of  ten  thousand 
ducats.     His  sons,  bitterly  distracted  by  filial  affection  on 
the  one  hand,  and  paramount  duty  to  their  country  on  the 
other,  while  they  denounced  this  conspiracy,  stipulated  for 
their  father's  life.     The  criminal  denied  his  guilt  till  con- 
fession was  extorted  by  the   rack  ;    and  on  committal  to 
the  Giants'  Tower,  stung  by  remorse,  or  by  apprehension 
of  a  painful  and  ignominious  death,  he  suffocated  himself 
i)y  the  smoke  of  some  straw  with  which  his  dungeon  was 
provided.     His  accomplices  were  carried,  riding  backward 
upon  asses,  to  the  place  of  execution,  where  they  were 
hanged,  each  bv  one  foot  to  the  gibbet,  and  left  to  perish  in 
torture. 

Disasters  now  thickened  apace  on  all  sides,  and  no  hope 
of  assistance  remained  to  Carrara,  unless  from  the  Floren- 
tines, who  still  promised  their  succour  as  soon  as  they 
should  be  disengaged  from  war  with  Pisa.  As  the  invaders 
approached  nearer  to  his  capital,  Carrara  intrusted  his  two 
younger  sons,  Ubertino  and  Marsilio,  and  other  branches 
of  his  family,  with  the  larger  portion  of  his  treasure  and 
jewels,  to  the  protection  of  these  ancient  allies.  Fran- 
cesco Terzo  ably  and  valorously  seconded  him  in  the  capital ; 


L\\ 


&.r*j*;;'.jji^*fy,   'i -T  awaaJiJf", 


308 


PESTILENCE  IN  PADTTA. 


while  Giacomo,  his  second  son,  commanded  at  Verona* 
and  having  secured  the  most  defenceless  of  those  dear  to 
him  in  their  asylum  at  Florence,  Carrara  himself  boldly 
confronted  the  peril  which  was  now  hourly  increasing,  since 
Savello  had  advanced  to  the  very  walls  of  Padua,  and 
closely  invested  it  on  the  twelfth  of  June. 

Verona  was  still  pressed  by  Gonzaga  of  Mantua  and  Gia- 
copo  dal  Verme ;  and  the  citizens,  without  attachment  to 
their  present  governors,  in  order  to  escape  the  terrors  of  an 
assault,  surrendered  by  capitulation.  A  safe-conduct  was 
accorded  to  Giacomo,  with  which  he  secured  the  retreat  of 
his  lady.  Madonna  Belfiore.  For  himself,  disappointed  in 
the  return  of  a  messenger  whom  he  despatched  to  Padua 
and  apprehensive  that  his  father  had  refused  to  confirm  the 
treaty,  he  attempted  to  escape  by  night.  Though  disguised, 
he  was  recognised  by  some  peasants,  who  delivered  him  to 
the  pravveditoriy  and  by  them  he  was  immediately  sent  under 
a  strong  escort  to  Venice,  where  on  his  arrival  he  was 
thrown  into  the  prison  of  San  Giorgio. 

Verona  having  fallen,  the  blockading  army  was  disen- 
gaged, and  joined  the  division  before  Padua,  where,  in  addi- 
tion to  the  other  miseries  of  a  siege,  pestilence  had  com- 
menced its  ravages.    While  the  enemy  continued  to  spread 
devastation  over  the  open  country,  the  neighbouring  villagers 
flocked  within  the  walls  in  order  to  see°k  protection ;  and 
anxious  to  preserve  such  property  as  they  could  cany  off 
they  were  accompanied  by  large  herds  of  cattle.     A  mixed 
throng  of  beasts  and  men  crowded  and  exhausted  the  city 
BO  that  not  only  every  house  overflowed  with  inhabitants! 
but  the  churches,  monasteries,  and  public  magazines  were 
choked   with   countless   swarms,   while  the  porches   and 
arcades  of  the  open  streets  afforded  a  scanty  shelter  to 
multitudes  otherwise  wholly  unprovided.     Food  was  soon 
wanting  for  this  overgrown  population.     The  cattle  first 
began  to  die  for  want  of  fodder ;  and  the  wretched  fugi- 
tives, pent  within  lunits  far  too  contracted  for  their  num- 
bers, worn  by  fatigue,  weakened  by  hunger,  poisoned  by  the 
foul  exhalations  steaming  from  the  corruption  which  sur- 
rounded them,  contracted  and  propagated  a  frightful  dis- 
ease.*   An  acute  fever,  attended  with  the  plague-spot  and 

*  Gataro,  from  whom  we  are  borrowing,  might  be  supposed  to  write 
vath  Livy  before  his  eyes.    Grave  tempus  et/vrU  anni^pestUens  erat 


5)10 


OTT/^/^T«Cie>T?«T»       j^AV«.«» 


MODE  OF  BURIAL. 


309 


tumour,  was  generally  fatal  in  three  days  at  fiirthest.  The 
deaths  varied  from  three  hundred  to  five  hundred  in  each 
day,  and,  as  appeared  from  a  register  kept  in  the  episcopal 
palace,  more  than  forty  thousand  individuals  perished  be- 
tween the  end  of  June  and  the  middle  of  August.  Among 
the  victims  of  this  mortalit)'^  are  noticed  the  elder  of  the 
two  Gatari  and  Alda  da  Gonzaga,  the  consort  of  Francesco 
Terzo.  The  princess  was  interred  with  as  much  pomp  as 
the  season  of  misery  pennitted.  But  the  mode  of  burial 
which  the  chronicler  describes  as  adopted  for  the  many  suf- 
ficiently avouches  the  horrors  to  which  the  Paduans  were 
subjected,  and  cannot  fail  to  bring  to  mind  the  like  practice 
which  prevailed  among  ourselves  when  London  was  last 
exposed  to  a  similar  calamitous  visitation.  No  one  who 
has  read  the  vivid  pages  of  De  Foe  can  have  forgotten  the 
daily  gatherings  of  the  dead  from  house  to  house,  which  he 
so  distressingly  narrates  ;  and  though  the  texture  of  that 
singular  writer's  palmary  work  is  fictitious,  the  materials 
from  which  it  is  woven  are  confessedly  trustworthy.  Every 
morning,  says  Gataro,  cars  went  round  to  receive  the  dead, 
and  in  every  car  were  placed  from  sixteen  to  twenty  corpses. 
A  crucifix  and  lantern  were  fixed  on  the  pole  in  front,  and 
each  car  was  attended  by  a  priest.  Deep  trenches  were 
opened  in  the  burying-grounds  of  the  churches,  and  into 
them  the  corpses  were  thrown  and  covered  with  earth. 
Since  the  destruction  of  Jerusalem  and  the  fall  of  Troy, 
adds  this  eyewitness,  never  was  any  city  in  the  world  so 
overwhelmed  as  the  unfortunate  Padua.* 

The  contagion,  as  may  be  supposed,  was  not  wholly  con- 
fined to  the  city  ;  it  penetrated  to  the  Venetian  camp  :  but 
more  open  quarters  and  ampler  supplies  disarmed  it  there 
of  much  of  its  deadly  power,  so  that  not  a  day  passed 
without  an  assault,  and  the  two  Carrara  were  ever  foremost 
where  danger  summoned.  Even  in  this  their  extremity, 
they  secured  an  interest  in  the  besieging  army,  and  Vene- 
tians were  found  sufficiently  blinded  by  the  love  of  gain  to 


-I 


l! 


urbi  agrisque,  nee  hominibus  magis  quam  pecori ;  et  auxere  vim  morbi 
terrore  populatimiis  pecoribus  agrestibvsque  in  urbem  acceptis.  Ea 
conluvio  mixtomm  omnis  generis  animantium  ct  odore  insolito  urbanos, 
et  agrestem.  confertiim  in.  artn  tecta,  cestu  et  vigiliis  angebat,  ministeria- 
gue  invicem  ac  contagia  ipsa  vulgabant  morbos  (iii.  6). 
^*  Andrea  Gataro,  922. 


310 


SUCCESSFUL  SORTIE. 


THE  BESIEGERS  REPULSED. 


311 


hold  treacherous  communication  with  the  falling  princes 
By  means  of  billets  fastened  to  the  heads  of  arrows,  and 
shot  withm  the  walls,  intelligence  was  daily  forwarded  to 
them.     The  traitors  were  discovered ;  two  of  them  were 
pnests ;  and  as  if  in  imitation  or  in  refinement  upon  that 
death  of  Imgenng  horror  which  the  Romans  inflicted,  when 
called  to  punish  those  whom  they  esteemed  the  most  holy 
among  their  ministers  of  religion,  these  miserable  crimi- 
nals,  having  been  conveyed  to  Venice,  were  buried  alive 
wiUi  their  heads  downwards,  between  the  fatal  columns    ' 
Terms  at  length  were  proposed  by  Zeno,  though  indi- 
rectly,  and  without  the  authority  of  the  senate,  to  which 
Carrara  appeared  inclined  to  consent,  and  the  pravveditore 
withdrew  to  Venice  that  he  might  obtain  full  powers  for 
negotiation.     Discipline  became  remiss  in  the  camp  durin? 
his  absence,  and  Carrara  seized  the  opportunity  as  favour- 
ab  e   for  a  sortie.     It  was  his  last  feat  of  arms  in  the  open 
field,  and  never  had  he  been  more  proudly  triumphant.    At 
the  head  of  fifty  men,  on  the  first  dawn  of  the  17th  of 
August,  he  issued  from  the  Santa  Croce  gate,  and  found 
the  outposts  unsentineled  and  the  whole  camp  buried  in 
slumber.     To  fire  the  nearest  tents,  to  put  the  sleepers  and 
the  fugitives  to  the  sword,  was  the  work  of  a  few  minutes  • 
and   as  the  flames  spread  widely  and  furiously,  a  strong 
reserve  poured  in  upon  the  terror-stricken  and  unresisting 
victims.     The  glare  of  the  burning  camp,  however,  aroused 
a  division  quartered  at  Moncelise,  and  that  detachment, 
together  with  such  troops  as  Savello  could  rally,  at  lenffth 
made  a  stand.     But  ere  this  Carrara's  object  was  fully 
gained,  and  he  retired  in  good  order  within  the  city,  after 
having  inflicted  severe  loss  upon  his  enemy,  and  gained  for 
himself  a  valuable  booty.     The  standard  of  St.  Mark  was 
captured,  and  the  damage  sustained  by  the  Venetians  was 
estimated  at  not  less  than  one  hundred  thousand  ducats, 
bavello  received  a  wound  which  not  long  afterward  proved 
mortal,  and  a  truce  of  ten  days  was  required  for  the  burial 
CI  the  dead. 

That  truce  was  yet  further  prolonged  on  the  return  of 
Zeno,  who  learned  with  surprise  the  disasters  which  had 
been  suffered  during  his  absence.  He  invited  the  si^nor 
to  a  conference,  and  "  having  touched  hands  and  saluted," 
they  sat  down  on  the  bank  of  the  Brenta,  and  continued  in 


long  debate.  The  Venetians  offered  to  release  Giacomo  da 
Carrara,  to  present  the  signor  himself  with  sixty  thousand 
ducats  and  thirty  cars  laden  with  his  private  property,  and 
to  allow  their  free  transport  to  any  spot  he  might  "select. 
When  Francesco  asked  permission  to  consult  his  citizens 
before  he  returned  a  final  answer,  Zeno  jumped  up,  and 
said  to  him,  with  a  familiar  tone  and  action,*  "  Signor,  if 
by  this  time  to-morrow  you  shall  not  have  put  me  in  pos- 
session of  Padua,  you  need  have  no  hope  of  peace  with 
Venice,  and  by  the  faith  of  a  true  knight  I  swear  to  be  ever 
after  your  deadly  foe."  This  warning  was  unhappily 
thrown  away.  Resisting  the  advice  of  his  council,  and 
lending  a  more  willing  ear  to  a  flattering  despatch  which 
at  the  moment  he  received  from  Florence,  and  which  urged 
him  to  hold  out  by  the  promit-e  of  speedy  succour, — through 
the  fatality,  says  Gataro,  which  seemed  to  attend  the  bourse 
of  Carrara  to  its  destruction,  he  refused  the  terms,  and  pre- 
pared anew  for  defence. 

One  by  one  his  few  remaining  castles  were  gained  by 
force  or  fraud,  till  Galeazzof  of  Mantua  assumed  the  com- 
mand before  Padua,  and  on  the  2d  of  November  attempted 
to  storm.  He  was  repulsed  at  all  points,  himself  received 
three  lance-thrusts  and  was  forced  headlong  from  the  ram- 
part, at  a  spot  at  which  Francesco  was  personally  engaged, 
and  not  improbably,  as  it  seems,  by  his  very  hand.  Bembo 
also,  one  of  the  provvcditori,  was  wounded  ;  and  although 
a  breach  was  effected  by  the  pioneers,  the  scaling  ladders 
and  engines  were  abandoned,  and  the  assailants  retired 
with  loss  and  in  confusion.  To  remove  this  disgrace,  and 
to  bring  the  siege  to  a  close,  new  engineers  were  despatched 
from  Venice,  but  their  approaches  were  skilfully  met  by 
counter-works  wherever  they  were  attempted.  'Opposite 
to  a  covered  way  directed  to  the  Gate  de'  Lioni,  Francesco 
drew  a  deep  ditch  within  the  wall,  and  raised  a  strong 
mound  parallel  to  it,  himself,  his  son,  and  the  chief  nobles 
assisting  to  carry  earth.  The  besiegers,  irritated  by  the 
obstinacy  of  this  protracted  defence,  menaced  the  citizens 
with  extermination,  and  discharged  virctonsX  within  the 

*  Allora  Messer  Carlo  Zeno  si  levd  in  piedi  e  prese  il  signore  nel 
petto,  e  crollandogli  le  vesti  dm?.— Andrea  Gataro,  926. 

T  see  the  Note  at  the  end  of  the  Chapter. 

♦  Lat.  vtrutum,  a  short  spitlike  {vera)  spear  or  arrow. 


il 


H 


319 


TTJi;'    caxiTa    i>Xif\r^T>   nAfrt»   ww'Tt*  »\rT»T\ 


li\ 


312 


THE  SANTA  CROCE  GATE  BETRAYED. 


SURRENDER  OV   CARRARA. 


313 


walls,  laden  with  messages  of  terror.     Ten  days  were  al- 
lowed for  their  ultimatum,  and  if,  at  the  close  of  that  period, 
they  still  continued  to  resist,  it  was  announced  that  every 
thing  should  be  ravaged  by  fire  and  sword,  and  that  the  fate 
of  Zara  and  of  Candia  should  be  renewed  in  that  of  Padua. 
The  middle  of  November  had  arrived,  and  Francesco 
Terzo,  hopeless  of  further  contest,  urged  his  father  to  ca- 
pitulate ;  but  the  signer  spoke  of  aid  from  France  and  Hun- 
gary, of  a  thousand  lances  already  on  their  march  under 
the  count  his  brother,  and  of  a  fleet  which  Genoa  was 
equipping.     In  his  heart  he  had  no  real  expectation  but 
from  Florence  ;  and  the  citizens,  little  deceived  by  these 
glittering  prospects,  at  length  showed  symptoms  of  insub- 
ordination.    Seed-time  had  been  lost ;  their  live-stock  was 
destroyed  ;  their  country  was  a  desert.     They  appeared  hi 
arms  before  the  palace,  and  there  extorted  a  promise  from 
their  signer,  that  unless  some  of  the  great  changes  which 
he  foreboded  should  take  place  within  ten  days,  it  should  then 
be  peace  or  war  at  their  pleasure.     They  were  much  grati- 
fied with  this  assurance,  says  the  chronicler,  and  lovingly 
took  leave  and  withdrew.     Not  all,  however,   were  thus 
contented  ;  for,  on  the  night  which  succeeded,  the  Santa 
Croce  gate  was  betrayed  by  its  sentinels,  and  the  first  act 
of  the  Venetians  upon  entering  was  to  put  to  the  sword 
the  traitors  who  admitted  them.     Carrara,  roused  by  the 
tumult,  flew  to  attempt  the  recovery  of  the  gate,  whence,  over- 
powered by  numbers,  he  retired  contesting  every  street,  and 
endeavouring  to  gain  time  so  that  the  inhabitants  might 
throw  themselves  into  the  strong  fortification  of  their  in- 
nermost precinct.     The  tocsm  rang  to  arms  ;  few,  however, 
obeyed  the  summons,  or,  if  they  did  so,  it  was  to  save  their 
property,  not  to  second  their  prince.     After  the  most  gal- 
lant and  unavailing  efforts,   Carrara,  perceiving   himself 
abandoned,  demanded  a  safe-conduct  to  the  camp,  where 
he  was  received  by  Galeazzo  and  the  provveditari.     With 
grave  and  stately  courtesy,  they  listened  to  the  expression 
of  his  wish  to  submit,  and  his  inquiry  as  to  conditions,  and 
then  replied   that  they  were  not  invested  with  power  to 
ratify  a  treaty,  but  that  they  would  accept  the  surrender, 
and  ascertain  the  pleasure  of  the  signory.     It  was  with  dif- 
ficulty that  Francesco  restrained  his  mounting  indignation 
as  he  rose  to  withdraw,  saying  that  his  defences  were  still 


good,  and  that  he  would  throw  himself  into  the  citadel.  In 
return,  it  was  proposed  to  him  that  he  should  provisionally 
resign  the  whole  city  and  its  fortresses  into  the  hands  of 
the  provveditorij  while  he  negotiated  with  Venice.  He 
hesitated  a  few  moments,  and  then  turning  to  Galeazzo, 
addressed  him :  "  Captain,  it  is  into  your  hands  that  I  will  in- 
stantly surrender  my  city  and  my  castle,  if  you  wiil  promise 
upon  Imightly  faith  and  honour  to  restore  them  as  you  re- 
ceive them,  if  I  fail  in  coming  to  accord  with  the  signory." 
Galeazzo  gave  the  desired  pledge,  and  Carrara  returned  to 
Padua  to  select  his  ambassadors,  eight  of  whom  were 
named  by  the  burghers,  two  by  himself.  On  their  arrival 
at  Venice,  the  former  were  admitted,  the  latter  were  refused 
audience  by  the  doge.  Great  pains  were  taken  to  separate 
the  interests  of  the  citizens  from  those  of  their  lord,  and 
the  reservation  of  their  privileges  was  tendered  if  they 
would  but  treat  independently  of  Carrara. 

The  prince,  meantime,  in  full  confidence  of  security,  re- 
turned to  the  camp,  and  partook  with  Galeazzo  of  a  soldier's 
board,  at  which  Mestre  was  appointed  as  the  place  of  con- 
ference with  the  ambassadors  on  the  following  day.  On 
that  day,  however,  Padua  was  occupied,  contrary  to  the  ex- 
press stipulation  of  her  lord,  by  Venetian  troops,  and  the 
keys  and  ensigns  of  authority  were  delivered,  not  to  Gale- 
azzo, but  to  the  pravveditori.  The  citizens  appeared  care- 
less of  the  change  ;  yet  if,  worn  down  by  misery,  they  had 
lost  their  attachment  to  Carrara,  they  at  least  testified  no 
joy  at  the  accession  of  their  new  masters.  Carrara  too  late 
perceived  that  he  was  betrayed,  and  appealed  to  Gonzaga 
for  the  fiilfilment  of  his  pledge.  That  pledge  was  renewed ; 
the  Mantuan  assured  him  afresh  of  protection,  and  of  the 
restoration  of  his  city  if  the  treaty  should  be  rejected.  He 
vaunted  the  generosity  of  the  signory,  and  proposed  to  ac- 
company the  prince  and  his  son  to  Venice.  Earnestly  did 
Francesco  Terzo  protest  against  this  perilous  step.  Better 
would  it  be,  he  said,  to  shut  themselves  up  in  their  castle, 
and  set  fire  to  it  with  their  own  hands,  than  thus  tamely  to 
bare  their  throats  to  the  knife  of  their  butchers.  "  Father, 
if  we  go,  we  go  to  certain  death ;  nevertheless,  you  gave 
me  life,  and  my  obedience  is  always  due  to  you."*     With- 


Vol.  I.— D  d 


*  Andrea  Gataro,  937. 


314    THE  DA  CARRARA  HVIPRISONED  AT  VENICE. 


AUr*    •DTTT    Tn     ■nTATTT 


Q1^ 


314    THE  DA  CARRARA  IMPRISONED  AT  VENICE. 

out  means  of  resistance,  and  either  unwilling  to  mistrust 
that  honour  to  which  he  had  confided,  or  totally  unappre- 
hensive of  the  atrocity  which  the  signory  meditated,  Car- 
rara signified  his  assent  to  Galeazzo's  proposition.     The 
voyage  might  have  awakened  suspicion  of  their  fate ;  for 
they  were  conveyed  in  a  covered  boat,  under  a  numerous 
guard,  and  on  landing  at  San  Giorgio,  where  they  passed 
the  night,  they  were  received  by  the  infuriated  populace 
with  deafening  shouts  of  «  Death  to  Carrara  !"     Galeazzo 
left  them  on  the  following  morning,  in  order  that  he  micrht 
mtercede  with  the  signory  ;  but  his  eiibrts  were  unavailing, 
and  he  never  returned.     It  is  probable  that  he  was  sincere ; 
that  he  deeply  felt  the  stain  cast  upon  his  honour  by  the 
violation  of  faith  into  which  he  had  been  entrapped,  and 
that  he  cither  testified   resentment  which  brought   down 
upon  him  the  secret  vengeance  of  a  government  to  which 
forgiveness  was  unknown,  or  fell  the  victim  of  remorse  and 
a  deeply  wounded  spirit.     He  survived  but  a  short  tune 
after  this  transaction.- 

Amid  the  yells  of  the  rabble,  Carrara  and  his  son  were 
led  to  the  hall  of  the  great  council,  where  they  knelt  before 
the  feet  of  the  doge.     Steno,   after  a  pause,  raised   and 
seated  them,  one  on  each  side  of  his  throne.     He  then 
reminded  them  of  the  deep  obligations  of  their  house  to 
Venice,  and  of  the  evil  return  whicJi  they  had  oflered  ;  and 
his  reproaches  were  received  submissively,  and  answered 
only  by  entreaty.    They  were  remanded  to  *San  Giorgio,  and 
confined  during  the  deliberation  of  the  council,  in  which 
Ijamshment  to  Cyprus  or  Candia,  imprisonment  on  those 
islands,  or  in  the  state  dungeons  of  the  capital,  were  seve- 
rally proposed.    For  the  present,  it  was  determined  that  they 
should  be  placed  in  a  cage  ;t  and  some  deference  was  shown 
to  their  station  by  the  assignment  of  a  servant  and  six  gen- 

*  See  the  supplementary  Note  at  the  end  of  the  Chapter  Gataro  htm 
TZr^'^'' ^"' '^^  fidelity  of  Galea/.zo:  he  bur  JZ  a<rains  hTnf ^ 
the  foUomng  irr.i)as.sione(l  words.  Oh  fe,1e  veramenteca^rmdiG^Z 
azzo  da  Mantoua,  c  tradUnci  promeJefatte  arZnaeT^cazii^ 
delta  nohdissima  casa  da  Carrara !    937.  sraatcaziont 

t  Conduserodi  far  fare  una  gabbia  sopra  la  Sala  che  i  in  Torresella 
ezvimetterezl  sienore  e  i  Jighwli,  e  che  osTni  ghr^ioandassSos^i 
Gfntcuo,n,nt  a  stare  con  loro,  e  dar  loro  un  famigUoche  TuTe^i^st  \ 


\ 


ARE  PUT  TO  DEATH. 


315 


tlemen  as  constant  attendants.  Meantime,  during  the  re- 
quisite preparations,  they  were  transferred  to  the  prisons 
adjoining  the  ducal  palace  ;  and  in  that  gloomy  abode  the 
si^mor  found  Giacomo,  his  second  son,  who  had  been  in 
captivity  for  five  months,  and  who  was  ignorant  of  the  fur- 
ther disasters  of  his  family.  The  interview  was  inexpressi- 
bly touching.  They  were  permitted  to  remain  together 
for  a  few  days,  and  were  then  placed  in  separate  cells. 

A  month  had  passed,  and  the  fate  of  tlie  prisoners  ap- 
peared still  undecided.  The  Venetians  hesitated  to  con- 
summate their  crime  ;  and  willing,  probably,  to  divide  its 
infamy  with  another,  they  seized  the  opportunity  afforded 
them  by  the  arrival  of  Gincopo  dal  Verme,  the  bitterest  ene- 
my of  the  house  of  Carrara.  He  presented  himself  before 
the  Council  of  X.,  and  declaimed  at  great  length  against  the 
captive  princes.  They  had  already,  he  said,  been  once  de- 
throned ;  but  they  had  arisen  again  to  greater  power  than  be- 
fore. Their  talents,  their  energy,  their  hereditary  animosity 
to  Venice,  the  devotion  of  their  subjects,  sufficiently  avouched 
by  the  great  sufferings  which  they  had  recently  endured  with 
scarcely  a  murmur,  thirty  years  of  mutual  injuries — all 
these  were  adduced  as  furnishing  so  many  reasons  of  state 
for  their  destruction.  Imprisonment  was  but  a  weak  and 
futile  provision  ;  and  the  grave  was  the  only  cell  in  which 
the  republic  could  immure  such  prisoners  with  safety.  The 
X  gladly  consented  to  the  reasonings  of  Dal  Verme, 
and  on  the  17th  of  Januar>^  Frate  Benedetto,  a 
faithful  servant  of  God,  who  had  frequently  acted  as 
confessor  to  the  elder  Carrara,  was  instructed  to  announce 
the  sentence.  The  signor  performed  his  devotions,  con- 
fessed, and  received  the  Eucharist ;  and  when  the  priest 
withdrew,  two  members  of  the  Council  of  X.,  two  others  of 
the  XL.,  a  wretch  named  Bernardo  de'  Priuli,  as  chief  exe- 
cutioner, and  twenty  assistants  entered  the  cell.  Unwill- 
ing to  fall  tamely,  and  disclaiming  the  authority  which  had 
condemned  him,  the  prince  seized  a  stool,  the  sole  furni- 
ture of  his  chamber,  and  for  a  while  successfully  defended 
himself,  till  the  tragedy  of  Pomfret*  in  our  own  history  was 
renewed  in  his  person.  Overpowered  by  numbers,  he  was 
stricken  down ;  and  Priuli,  standing  over  him  till  he  ex- 

*  Richard  II. 


A.  D. 

1406. 


316 


BTTRUi  OF  THE  DA  CARRARA. 


I 


tfil^S^^RiSPlffs 


316 


BtmiAt  OF  THE  DA  CARRARA. 


pired,  strangled  him  with  a  bowstring.    On  the  following  day 
the  sons  were  prepared  for  their  fate  by  the  same  holy  mes- 
senger who  had  performed  the  sad  office  to  their  parent. 
They  embraced  and  parted  tenderly.     Francesco  was  first 
led  out  to  the  cell  which  had  been  occupied  by  his  father,  and 
strangled  on  the  same  spot  by  the  same  hand.     The  execu- 
•   tioner  then  returned  to  Giacomo  :  with  a  hollow  voice  he 
asked  if  the  deed  was  done,  commended  himself  to  Heaven, 
and  sought  permission  to  write  to  his  lady,  Belfiore.     The 
youth,  and  the  firm,  though  gentle,  bearing  of  their  last 
victnn  might  have  wrung  pity  from  any  hearts  but  those  of 
Venetian  senators.     "He  was  in  his  twenty-sixth  year," 
says  Gfitaro,  "  tall,  and  as  hand'-ome  a  cavalier  as  any  in 
Lombardy,  fair,  like  his  mother,  thoughtful,  mild-tempered, 
and  a  lover  of  God  ;  his  address  was  uncommonly  sweet 
and  winning,  his  air  angelic.    Yet  was  he  high-spirited,  ac- 
tive,  and   brave.     If  he  had   lived   he  would   have  been 
another  Scipio  Africanus."*     Having  finished  his  brief  let- 
ter, he  knelt ;  and  while  repeating  "  Lord,  into  thy  hands  I 
commend  my  spirit,"  he  was  strangled  by  Priufi. 

The  bodies  of  the  young  princes  -/ere  thrown  into  a  boat, 
and  conveyed  to  the  church  of  San  Marco  Baccallare,  where 
they  were  interred  carelessly  without  any  rites  of  sepulture  • 
that  of  Francesco  himself  received  a  mockery  of  funeral 
honours.  Habited,  like  his  deceased  father,  in  a  rich  suit  of 
Alexandrian  velvet,  his  sword  girt  round  his  waist,  and  his 
golden  spurs  upon  his  heels,  he  was  conveyed  to  San  Ste- 
fano.  A  stone  in  the  cloister  of  that  church,  without  an 
inscription,  but  marked  with  a  singular  device,t  denotes  the 
resting  place  of  the  last  and  murdered  Lord  of  Padua.t 

*  See  also  Andrea  de  Redusiis,  ap.  Murotori^  xix.  818. 

[y^\  Can  this  be  interpreted  PATAVINVS  ?   It  is  said  in  the  later 

editions  of  the  Foreslier  Illuminato  to  mean  Pro  normd  Tyrannorum 
to  which  words  no  very  distinct  meaning  appears  to  be  attached  * 

X  The  family  name  of  Carrara,  like  tliat  of  the  Scottish  Mac-n-eeors 
was  proscnbed  A  branch  of  the  house  which  still  exists,  OMhdS 
n'\T,  %"";  %  ^f  "^;  ^"'  compelled  to  adopt  the  name  of  PappaSva 
(L  Art  de  Verifier  les  Dates,  iii.  665),  a  sobriquet,  the  origin  of  which  has 

raTra  a'strufrofpr  '?  """'"'',  ^'''■^'''-  ^^"- ^5)     MarsiSo  d1 
.arrara,  Sigrior  of  Padua  for  one  short  month  before  his  assassination 

;.«nif«f' ''^^'"  ^  ^"''''  ^'^^  '«'^^^'^'  ^"""e  ^  Pestilence  Xh  rageS  the 
capital  ma  mouastery  at  Brondolo.  "Now  in  all  the  great  relidoua 
jH)uses  u  IS  an  ancient  custom  to  have  vegetable  l-^-oth  at^  ^nnS  eve?y 


T7BERT1N0  AND  MARSILIO  CARRARA.  317 

The  vengeance  of  the  republic,  though  glutted  with  blood 
was  still  unsatiated.  There  yet  remained  two  sons  of 
Francesco,  who  had  eluded  her  deadly  grasp,  and  a  price 
was  set  upon  their  heads.  Four  thousand  florins  were  of- 
fered to  any  one  who  would  deliver  cither  of  them  alive  to  the 
signory;  three  thousand  to  him  who  would  assassinate 
them.  Yet,  in  spite  of  this  proscription,  Ubertino,  the 
elder,  died  a  natural  death  at  Florence,  in  1407,  and  thirty 
years  must  elapse  from  the  events  which  we  are  now  con- 
eidenng,  before,  in  the  more  violent  fate  of  Marsilio,  we 
terminate  the  history  of  the  injured  and  illustrious  line  of 
Carrara. 

day- of  the  week  On  Monday  it  is  made  of  beans  {fave\  on  Tuesday 
of  haricots,  on  Wednesday  of  chick-pease,  and  so  on.  Marsilietio  was 
so  fond  of  beans  that  it  always  appeared  a  thousand  years  to  him  tUl 
the  Monday  came  round  ;  and  when  it  did,  he  devoured  the  beans  with 
such  delight  as  was  a  pleasure  to  behold.  He  was  therefore  nicknamed 
Pappa-fava  (Bean-glutton)  by  the  rest,  and  his  descendants  have  retained 
\RQ  name." 

Dd2 


mA'- 


fis^j^Sf  ;■  i 


K'tk 


(318) 


SUPPLEMENTARY   NOTE. 


819 


I 


SUPPLEMENTARY  NOTE 

To  page  311. 

1  have  retained  the  name  Galcazzo  in  deference  to  the  general  voice  of 
Ins  orians,  ancient  and  modern  ;  nevertheless  I  feel  a  strong  conviction 
that  It  was  Francesco  di  Gonzaga,  Lord  of  Mantua,  and  not  his  general, 

?piT^''A'n''''°.K°"''"^"^'^^  ^^^'^'"^  P^d"^'  an'^  to  ^'hom  Carrara  surren- 
dered. All  authorities  agree  that  Francesco,  jointly  with  Giacono  dal 
Venne  commanded  at  the  siege  of  Verona,  and  that,  after  the  surrender 
pJn!  '''1^?''  l^""^'  ^''^^.  "'^rched  to  unite  themselves  with  Savello  at 
«n5  ^  •  I?  ^"^^^  mention  of  Galeazzo  occurs  after  the  death  of  Savello : 
and  he  is  then  made  the  chief  actor  in  the  subsequent  transactions 
in  hi'?'  *  Y,^''^""  ""^  ^^''  'T'"'''  elegance  than  accuracy,  shows  that  even 
^.//  f»  T^  /^"""^  '""wf-  *•  ^"""^^  respecting  the  name.  "  Galeacius  Gm- 
menus  Ma)ituan.iis  illi  m  imperium,  decreto  patrum,  successit.  Qui- 
damauctoresnon  Griundlum  sed  Gonzagam,  ac  Francisci  prin6wis 
Mfrern  euyn/msse  tradunt-  Dec.  II.  lib.  viii.  p.  432).  Laugier,  Sismondi 

Prr^^rni     1    n''^''''''^  ^'^""'^^^^  »«  substitutc  Fra.'.cesco  di  Gonzaga. 

VenTJ.r?r'i''f^''^'''  ''"""'^  '''Sagi  Francois  Carrara  d  se  re^idrl d 

I  enisepour  trailer  en  personneses  inUrHs  avec  le  doge,  Vassurant  mVil 

yseroit  en  toute  surety.     R  fvt  en  consermence  trs/amrdlvoiTls 

^nl^i^Ui^Z  ^''""T  ""f'T.f  ^'f^^rep<lr.rcruiatmentdZsZ 
prison,  am  SI  que  ses  enfans  (ui.  G05) 

}«  Th.^Tr'^V/"^'""^^"'  ^^'}^  testimony  in  favour  of  Francesco  di  Gonzaga 
Is  that  of  Mario  Equicola,  who  wrote  withm  a  ceniury  of  the  tracedv 
of  Carrara ;  and  xvlio.  from  his  connexion  with  the  Manman  coSt^me 
was  secretary  to  Isabella  d'Este,  consort  of  Giovanni   Francesco  II 

^TZ:lJlTAf^'r''  -'^^'^  '^^^^^^^^'^  authentic  infonnatTon  In 
Si»^  D  ^^"^o  3/an^ojfaTii  occurs  the  following  passage:  Paolo  Sa- 
vello, Barmie  Romano,  fu  eletto  aWinipresa  dt  c^spugnarPadoua  Jl 
Gonzaga  fu  preposto  coKtra  Verona,  la  quale  era  di/esadaGiacovo 
rZZ'l'^f^T'^'^'^'''''''''''  '^  -"■'«^'«'^'-  L^Aliprcmdiscrivech^ii 
Cfnft^.^'-    '^''"I'V''^.  Ji  "^^netiaru,  e  che  detto  Giacopo  ficggmdo 

SSvit^^'w    ''"''^  ,^efru.rt«.  z  predetti  Venetiani  hebbero  Padoua 
Tn    J  J  ^i\^^' «^-"^i^"^« ^^^ loro Capitano Francesco Gomaga.  Donato 

itmpt    d  Platina  nella  Vita  d'  Innocenzo  VIL,  e  Giovan  Filipvo  nel 

Idulta'se  fAnintfr, ^;,^""^«;'\^'«^««^^o  Orumello  Mantouano, 
SaTllo-ltn%r^n^in  '^  ^'■"^^/^^-A*^^^^  sostituito  in  luogo  di  Paolo 
viZi.lf  rr^"^  '^  ^'^'^^'^'^  essere/ratello  del  Prmcipe  di  Mantoua 
rrn.ZV^'^'7  "^^  P"''  ''^  *''-'^'' ••  *^'*^'*'  ^<=hi  il  Corildica  Ga^azzo 
yomaga,  dopo  la  morte  di  Paolo  Savello  haver  havuta  la  curadelTetsS^ 
cztoch^  era  contra  Padoua.  After  recounting  the  murder  of  CaSa^^ 
Equicola  continues,  Onde  il  Gonzaga  ritorno  non  moltosodismtodi 
quelsenato,  perciochi,  come  dicono,  havea  essortato  tlCa^aTXdare 

ZlZ'''JViV''^  ^"-'^  '"«"«'■  ^''''''  *«^;  prornettendoJuSeUbna. 
^ente  andarehbe,  e  sicuro  tornarebbe,  ,e  mn  travasse  comtZ7d' 


xiccordo,  6  eke  le  cose  sarebbono  restate  n'ello  'stato  ch'  egli  le  lasciava. 
dtlche  millafu  da  Venatinni  osserrata  (lib.  ii,  p.  127). 

Galeazzo  was  killed  at  the  siege  of  Trecco,  in  May,  1406  (Sanuto  834), 
a  death  which  affords  no  room  for  the  suspicion  which  we  have  adopted, 
la  the  text,  Irom  Sismondi.  II  ressentit  et  manifesta  pcut-eire  d'unc 
maniire  provoquante  sa  profonde  indignation  pour  Vabus  coupable 
qu'on  faisoit  de  sa  parole;  le  senat  ne  suuffroit  pas  volantkrs  Its 
reproches  de  ses  gens  de  guerre  et  Galeaz  mourut  au  bout  de  pue  de 
gemaines  (ch.  lix.  p.  123).  Francesco  di  Gonzaga  died  in  March,  14()7. 
His  character,  as  represented  by  Equicola  from  Poggio,  is  that  of  a  man 
deeply  sensitive  on  points  of  honour,  and  who  would,  therefore,  sufter 
m«st  acutely  from  the  recollection  of  the  base  and  cruel  deed  in  wliicii 
he  had  been  made  an  involuntary  tool.  Huomo  savio,  e  che  piu  sti?na 
facea  della/ede  data  et  del  giuramcnto,  che  di  nimV  ultra  cosa  offer tasli 
(128).  "" 

It  is  not  probable  that  Carrara  would  have  relied  upon  the  protection 
of  a  subordinate  Mantuan  rather  than  that  of  Carlo  Zeno.  On  llie  other 
hand,  if  the  Prince  of  Mantua  were  himself  present,  there  i.s  good  rtHSou 
why  he  should  be  selected.  The  Lord  of  Padua  might  prefer  ofTeriii? 
his  submission  to  the  Lord  of  Mantua  rather  than  to  a  Venetian  prw- 
veditore;  but  surely  he  would  choose  the  first  delegate  of  a  powerful 
republic,  and  that  delegate  the  most  renowned  warrior  of  his  time,  before 
the  military  representative  of  the  chief  of  a  ])ctty  district. 

Two  remarkable  single  combats,  in  which  this  Galeazzo  was  engaged, 
are  recorded  in  the  Chronicon  Tarrisittuin  of  Andrea  de  Raiiusiis.  Dne 
was  fought  in  France  with  a  gigantic  Englishman,  whom  the  chronirler 
names  Rubinus  iVortZ/its  (Robin*  Newman  ?).  This  eliarnniou  had 
already  been  seven  times  victor  in  similar  combats,  and  no  FroMcliinan 
could  be  found  who  would  accept  his  challenge.  The  two  knighiR 
entered  the  lists  on  foot ;  and  Novellus,  who  bore  a  huge  iron  battle-axe, 
swung  it  round  his  head  with  the  most  terrific  force;  but  (ialeazzo 
avoided  the  blow  by  springing  aside  with  great  agi'ity  as  it  descended, 
and  jumping  upon  his  antagonist  while  he  was  again  endeavouring 
once  more  to  raise  his  jwnderous  weapon,  felled  him  by  a  single  stroke 
on  the  hack  of  the  head.  At  the  entreaty  of  the  King  of  France  he 
spared  his  pri-soner's  life,  and  received,  in  consequence,  a  pension  of  six 
hundred  golden  ducats  from  the  royal  bounty.  The  second  duel  occurred 
at  Padua  in  the  presence  of  many  noble  Venetians.  It  was  fought,  as 
we  imagine,  with  the  Marechal  de  Boucicauit  {BuxicaUlus  Francigena), 
but  it  terminated  by  the  interference  of  the  judges  of  the  field,  witliout 
bloodshed,  or  the  assignment  of  victory  to  either  party  (ao.  Murat. 
3LU.  815). 


KND  OF   VOL.  I. 


VALUABLE    WORKS 


'|i| 


rUBLlSHKD   &T 


i.  &  J.  HARPER,  82  CLIFF-STREET,  NEW-YORK. 


THE  TTISTORY  OF  MODERN 
EUROPE,  from  the  rise  of  tlic 
Modern  Kingdoms  to  xhe  present 
period.  By  William  Russei.l, 
LLD.,  and  William  .I*\Ks,  Esq. 
Wiih  Annotations  by  an  Ameri- 
can.    In  3  vols.  Sr'o. 

THE  HISTORICAL  WORKS  of 
the  Rev.  WILLIAM  ROBERT- 
SON, D.D. ;  comi>ri.sing  liis  HIS- 
TOR^ofAMERICA;  CHARLES 
v.;  SCOTLAND,  and  INDIA. 
In  3  vo!s.8vo.  with  Plates. 

GIBBON'S  HISTORY  OF  THE 
DECLINE  AND  FALL  OF  THE 
ROMA.N  EMPIRE.  In  4  vols. 
8v&.  WiUi  Plates. 

The  »bor«  works  (Russell's,  Robertson's,  and 
Gilibon-«)  jire  stereotyped  and  primed 
uniformly.  Great  pains  have  been  taken 
to  render  them  perfect  in  ererv  respect. 
They  are  decidedly  the  lieil  editiora  ever 
I<nb!i»hed  in  this  country. 

ExN'GLISH  SYNOxNYMES,  with 
copious  Illustralicns  and  E.xplan- 
ations,  dwtvn  from  the  be«t  Wri- 
ters. By  GeoRGK  Crabb,  M.A. 
A  {new  Edition,  enlarged.  8vo. 
[Stereotyped.] 

UFE  OF  LORD   BYRON.     By 

Thoma8|Moork,  Esq.    In  2  vols. 
8vo.    w'ith  a  Portrait. 

HOOPER'S  MEDICAL  DICTION- 
ARY. From  the  lact  I^ndon 
Edition.   With  Additions,  by  Sa- 

MDBL  AKEKLY,  M.D,     8vO. 

COOPER'S  SURGICAI,  DIC- 
TIONARY. In  2  vols.  8to. 
Greatly  enlarged.    [Stereotyped.] 

GO0DS(Dr..ToHN  Mason)  STUDY 
OF  MEDICINE.  In  5  vols.  8vo. 
A  new  edition.  With  additions 
by  Sami'el  Cooper,  M.D. 

THE  BOOK  OF  NATURE;  hems 
«  popular  lllu>«tration  oi  the  gene- 
ra! Laws  nd  Phenomena  of  Crea- 
tion, &c."  By  Jof'N  Masiin  Goon, 
M.D.  and  F.H.S.  8vo  With  bis 
l-U*    C/Sitrcoiyixid,} 


DOMESTIC  DITTIES ;  or  Instrno- 
tions  to  Married  Ladies.  By  Mrs. 
William  Parkes.  I2.rio. 

ART  OF  INVIGORATING  and 
PROLONGING  LIFE.  ByWiL- 
i.iAM  KirriiiNtR,  MD.  lymo. 
[Stereotjped.] 

THE  COOK'S  ORACLE,  AND 
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HAKPKR'S 


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fliiY   LIBRARY. 


N°.  XLIV. 


S  K  ETCHES 

i      S    HISTORY- 


IN    TWO    VOLUMES. 
VOL.   II. 


1 


1^  4»  J.  HAUPKK,  se  CLIFF  STREEr 


V  I- 


Stereotype  Edition. 


1832. 


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Madison  Av.  and  49th  St.  New  York. 
GIVEN,   1884,  BY    PEITHOLOGIAN    SOCIETY. 

Beside  the  main  topic  this  book  also  treats  of 
Subject  No.  On  page        Subject  No.  On  page 


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J2rto=^ork : 

PRINTED  AND  PUBLISnED  BY  J.  &  J.  ILVRPER, 

NO.   82  CLIFF-J'TREKT, 

AND    80LD    BY   THE    PRINCIPAL    BOOKSELLERS    THROUGHODT 
THE    UNITED    STATiiS. 


1832. 


l5.~&yEt-rg%'-.3i>i-  ,.i«a:askimgii.Uj.>  jajas 


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CONTENTS 


OF 


THE     SECOND    VOLUME. 


I 


CHAPTER  XI. 

FROM   A.  D.  1406  TO   A.  D.  1432. 

Process  against  Carlo  Zenn— His  last  Years  and  Death — Affairs  of  Mi- 
lan— Faciino  Cane — Filippo  Maria  Visconti — Beatrice  Tenda — Nego- 
tiations with  Florence — Rise  and  Disgrace  of  Francesco  di  Canna- 
gnunla — First  War  with  Milan — Siege  and  Capture  of  Brescia — Peace 
—Second  War  with  Milan— Battle  of  Casal  Secco — Battle  of  Macalo 
—Release  of  Prisoners  by  Cannagnuola — Peace — Third  W^ar  with 
Milan — Total  Destruction  of  the  Venetian  Flotilla — Carmagnuola  in- 
vited to  Venice — His  Condemnation  and  Execution Page  9 

CHAPTER  XH. 

FROM  A.  D.  1432  TO  A.  D.  1450. 

Peace  of  Ferrara — Rash  Enterprise  and  Death  of  Marsilio  da  Carrara — 
War  renewed  with  Milan— Origin  of  the  Family  of  Sforza— Treachery 
of  the  Duke  of  Mantua — Brilliant  Retreat  of  (-atta  Melata— Francesco 
Sforza  assumes  the  Command  of  the  Venetian  Army— Siege  of  Brescia 
—'i'ransport  of  a  Flotilla  overland  to  the  Lago  di  Garda— Battle  of  Tenna 
— Singular  Escape  of  Piccinino — Sforza  rejects  Overtures  from  the 
Duke  of  Milan — Sforza  surroiuided  at  Martenengo— Terms  unexjiect- 
edly  offered  by  the  Duke  of  Milan — Peace  of  Capriana— Marriage  of 
Sforza  with  the  Princess  Bianca— Death  of  Filippo-Maria  Visconti — 
His  Character — Milan  declares  herselfa  free  Republic — Engages  Sforza 
as  her  General— Battle  of  Caravaggio — ISoble  Forbearance  of  Sforza — 
He  makes  Peace  with  Venice — Treachery  of  the  A'enetians — Slorza 
blockades  Milan— Its  Surrender — He  assumes  the  Ducal  Crown.  •  37 

CHAPTER  Xin. 

FROM   A.  D.  1450  TO  A.  D.  1479. 

Continuation  of  the  War  with  Francesco  Sforza— Visit  of  the  Emperor 
Frederic  III.  to  Venice— Peace  with  Sforza— Treaty  with  the  Turks— 

A  2 


505^0 


>>aa  is>^ieai„s*-*i 


H^gl^Hg^g^jgy^l^^ 


5  CONTENTS. 

Robbery  of  the  Treasury  of  St.  Mark's-The  two  Foscari— The  In- 
ouisiiion  of  State-Turkish  War— Crusade  of  Pius  II.— Deatli  of 
Prancesoo  Sforza-Invasioii  of  Friuli  -Fall  of  Croia— Siege  of  Scu- 
tari—Peace with  Mahomet  II 68 

CHAPTER  XIV. 

FROM   A.  I).  1464  TO  A.  D.  1506. 

Giacopo  Lusienano  usurps  the  Crown  of  Cyprus— He  marries  Catarina 
Cornaro— His  Death— Insurrection  of  the  Cypriots— Deposition  of 
Queen  Catarina— Cyprus  becomes  a  Province  of  Venice— The  Turks 
sack  Otranto— Lodovico  the  More  usurps  the  Crown  of  Milan— In- 
vites the  French  into  Italy— Invasion  ol  Charles  VIII.— He  conquers 
Naple.s— Lmliassv  of  Philippe  de  Coniines  to  Venice— Retreat  of  the 
French— Battle  of  Fornovo— Victory  claimed  by  the  Venetians— De- 
thronement and  Captivitvof  Lodovico  Sforza— Wealth  and  Dominion 
of  Venice  at  the  close  of  the  Fiaeenth  Century— War  with  the  Em- 
peror—Truce—Jealousy of  the  great  European  Powers 104 

CHAPTER  XV. 

FIl0>t   A.  D.  1508   TO    A.  D.  1509. 

Causes  of  the  Leajjue  of  Cambrai— Julius  II.  discloses  it  to  the  Venetians 
—Preparations  for  Resistance— Evil  Omens— Total  Defeat  of  the  Ve- 
netians at  Agnadello— Louis  XII.  at  Mestre— Terror  in  V^enice— Loss 
of  all  her  Dominions  on  Terra  f/r/na— Fortitude  of  the  Government — 
Measures  for  Defence— Decree  releasing  the  Provinces  from  Alle- 
giance-Favourable Negotiation  with  the  Pope— Successful  Resist- 
ance of  Treviso — Surprise  of  Padua— Maximilian  prepares  for  its 
Siege— Capture  of  the  Duke  of  Mantua- Brilliant  Detence  of  Padua — 
Achievements  (if  the  (.'hevslier  Bayard— The  German  Men-at-arms  re- 
fuse to  mount  the  Breach — Maximilian  raises  the  Siege  in  disgust.  .138 

CHAPTER  XVL 

FROM   A.  D.  1509  TO  A.  D.  1516. 

Reconciliation  with  Julius  II. — Harangue  of  Louis  Helian  at  the  Diet 
of  the  Emi)ire— Campaigns  of  1510  and  1511— The  Holy  League — 
Gaston  rie  Foix  commands  the  French— Storm  of  Brescia— Generosity 
of  Bayard— Battle  of  Ravenna — Alliance  between  Venice  and  France 
— Accession  of  Leo  X. — Battle  of  Novarra — Battle  of  Motfa — Acces- 
sion of  Francis  I. — Battle  of  Marignano — Death  of  D'Alviano — Treaiy 
of  Noyon,  and  Conclusion  of  the  Wars  arising  out  of  the  League  of 
Cambrai 161 

CHAPTER  XVII. 

FROM  A.  n.  1516  TO  A.  D.  1573. 

Necessity  for  a  tempori/.ing  Policy — Wars  of  Charier?  V.  and  Francis  I 
—Peace  of  Cambrai — Turkish  War— Jternarkable  E.\ertion  of  Power  by 


CONTENTS.  7 

* 

the  Ten  in  procuring  Peace— Treachery  of  the  Venetian  Secretaries — 
Thirty  Yeans'  Peace— Progress  of  ihe  Arts— Titian— Ambition  of 
Selim  II.  — Fire  in  the  Arsenal  at  Venice- Selim  declares  War — De- 
scent upon  Cyprus— Siege  and  Capture  of  Nicosia— Of  Famagosta,  and 
entire  Conquest  of  Cyprus— Fate  of  Bragaono — Trijile  Alliance  be- 
tween the  Po|)e.  Spain,  and  Venice — The  Ottoman  Fleet  in  the  Ad- 
riatic— Don  .Tohn  of  Austria  commands  the  Allies — Battle  of  Le- 
panto — Inactivity  of  the  Confederates — Peace  between  Turkey  and 
Venice 188 

CHAPTER  XVIIL 


FROM    A.  D.  1573   TO   A.  D.  1617. 

Vi.sit  of  Henry  TTI.  to  Venice  —Plague— Embellishment  of  the  Capital — 
The  Rialto — Story  of  Bianca  Cap|H;llo — Alliance  with  Henry  IV. — 
The  Alchymist  Bragadino — Interdict  of  Paul  V. — Triumph  of  Venice — 
Attempt  on  the  Lift;  of  Fra  Paolo  Sarpi — Apology  of  James  I. — War 
of  the  Uscocchi 232 


CHAPTER  XIX. 

FROM    A.  D.  1618   TO    A.  D.  1669, 

Conspiracy  of  1618— Sentence  of  Foscari ni— Attack  upon  the  Cotmcil 
of  Ten— Venetian  Manners— War  of  Candia 264 

CHAPTER  XX. 


FROM   A.  D.  1670  TO  A.  D.  1798, 

Trial  of  Morosini — Annulment  of  the  Election  of  Giovanni  Sagredo— 
War  with  Turkey — Conquest  of  the  Morea — Peace  of  Carlowitz — 
SecjKid  War  with  Turkey — Loss  of  the  Morea — Successful  Defence 
of  Corfu  by  Count  Schullenbourg — Peace  of  Passarowitz — Neutrality 
subsequently  observed  by  Venice — Expeditions  against  the  African 
Corsairs — Attacks  upon  the  Ten — Demoralization  of  Venice — Com- 
mencement of  the  French  Revolution — Campaigns  of  Bonaparte  in 
Italy — Indecision  of  »he  Signory — Bloody  Affray  at  Verona — Capture 
of  a  French  Vessel  at  Lido — Bona|»arte  declares  War — Imbecility  of 
the  (ioverntnent — Abdication  of  the  Doge  Manini — The  French  oc- 
<;upv  Venice — Venice  transferred  to  Austria  by  the  Treaty  of  Campo 
Forlnio 296 


SKETCHES 


riiOM 


VENETIAN  HISTORY 


1 

\ 


ENGRAVINGS  IN  VOL.  II. 


I    I 


I. 
II. 

ni. 

IV. 
V. 


PLATE. 
Venice,  as  it  appeared  in  1765.    Frontiapiece. 

WOODCUTS. 

Francesco  ajid  Bianca  Sforza,  from  their  Tonnb  at  Milan.    P.  103. 
An  Arquebu.sier,  and  a  Soldier  in  Garrison— XVth  Century  (Irorn 

Titian).    P.  137. 
King  of  France— King  of  Spain  (from  Titian).    P.  187. 
Venetian  Ladv  dyin?  her  Hair  (from  Titian).    P.  295. 
The  Horses  of  St.  Mark's.    P.  321. 


V. 


1 


H 


kt> 


CHAPTER  XT. 

FROM  A.  D.   1406  TO  l.D.  1432. 

Process  ajrainst  Carlo  Zeno-His  last  Years  and  Death— AflTairs  of  ML'an 
tacimo  Cane— Filippo-Maria  Visconti— Peatrice  Terida— Negolia- 
iions  vyith  Florence— Rise  and  Disgraoe  of  Francesco di  Carrnagnuola 
— I'lrsi  vvar  with  Milan— Siege  and  Capture  of  Brescia— Peace— 
feecond  War  with  Milan-Battle  of  Casal  Secco-Battle  of  Macalo— 
Keiease  0/  Prisoners  by  Carrnagnuola— Peace— Third  War  with  Mi- 
1*",T^.°"*'  Destruction  of  the  Venetian  Floiii la— Carrnagnuola  invited 
to  Venice— His  Condemnation  and  Execution. 


A.  D. 


DOGES. 


MiCHAELE    StENO. 
1413.    LXVT.     TOMASO    MONCENIGO, 

1423.  Lxvii.  Francesco  Foscabi, 


About  the  hour  of  vespers  on  the  17th  of  January,  1406, 
reports  of  the  death  of  Francesco  da  Carrara  were  circulated 
througn  Venice,  with  such  variations  respecting  its  attend- 
ant circumstances  as  the  difficulty  of  ohtaining  correct 
knowledge  of  truth,  or  the  danger  of  repeating  more  than 
the  government  might  be  pleased  to  avow,  attached,  for  the 
most  part,  to  all  great  national  transactions  of  the  repub- 
lic. Some  of  the  busy  knots  assembled  in  the  piazza  mys- 
teriously hinted  the  facts  as  they  really  occurred,  and  loudly 
praised  the  indefeasible  power  and  justice  of  their  rulers. 
The  majority,  with  greater  caution,  averred  that  the  Lord 
of  Padua  had  died  of  a  catarrh  ;*  and  significantly  congratu- 

♦,Sanuto,  832, /u  deito  esser  morto  di  catarrcu 


10  REFLECTIONS    ON   THE   EXECUTION    OF 

lated  one  another  by  the  application  of  the  chief  argument 
on  which  Giacopo  dal  Verme  had  rested  the  necessity  and 
the  poUcy  of  the  bloody  sentence,  » A  dead  man  makes  no 
war ''*    We  know  not  whether  it  was  durmg  a  period  ot 
former  alliance,  or  after  this  unhappy  prmce's  death,  that 
his  statue  was  placed  in  the  hall  of  the  armoury  of  the 
Council  of  Ten  ;t  but  down  even  to  our  own  days,  the  mem- 
bers of  the  dark  and  despotic  tribunal  by  which  was  per- 
petrated the  great  crime  of  his  murder,  could  never  assem- 
ble to  deliberate  on  fresh  deeds  of  cruelty,  without  passmg 
under  the  very  image  and  likeness  of  their  most  illustrious 

""'uTs  painful  to  remember  that  Carlo  Zeno  had  any  share 
in  this  most  atrocious  and  unjustifiable  process,  and  there 
is  no  one  who  will  not  be  gratified  to  learn,  that  although 
he  is  named  among  the  commissioners  to  whom  the  hrst 
cognizance  of  it  was  intrusted,  he  does  not  appear  to  have 
voted  for  a  higher  punishment  than  imprisonment^     Lven 
such  an  infliction,  however,  would  have  been  a  gross  breach 
of  the  law  of  nations ;  for  Carrara  was  an  independent 
govereian,  long  recognised  as  such  by  Venice  herself,  and 
resting  his  title  on  claims  to  the  full  as  legitimate  as  those 
of  any  other  Italian  prince  of  his  time.     He  had  a  plenary 
right  of  peace  and  war ;  and,  under  defeat,  the  sole  penal- 
ties to  which  he  could  be  justly  subjected  were  those  com- 
mon to  the  vanquished  ;  ri  curtailment  or  forfeiture  of  his 
dominions,  and  captivity  till  he  should  be  ransomed.     But 
even  from  these  rights  of  victory  his  enemies  were  precluded 
bv  the  engagements  under  which  he  had  been  decoyed  to 
Venice  ;  tnd  having  freely  confided  himself  to  their  safe- 
conduct  for  the  purpose  of  negotiation,  he  could  be  as  little 
regarded  a  prisoner  of  war,  as  an  offender  against  laws  to 
which  he  did  not  owe  obedience.     His  condemnation  was  a 
ffrievous  arid  crying  wickedness  ;  and— would  that  it  were 
without  such  a  parallel !— must  be  classed  by  historians  in 
the  same  page  with  that  of  the  hapless  Mary  of  Scotland. 
A  most  odious  act  of  ingratitude  towards  the  wisest, 
purest,  bravest,  and  greatest  individual  of  his  times  yet 
remains  to  be  recorded  in  illustration  of  the  detestable  policy 
of  the  Council  of  Ten.     Immediately  on  the  occupation  of 

*  Smxxto,  ?22,vommortononfaguerra. 

t  yonstaro  illuminato,  31.  t  Sanuto,  829. 


^ISSf¥?S5K|{5S».*iJ!^li5■=■  ■ 


FRANCESCO    DA  CARRARA. 


11 


Padua,  commissioners  were  appointed  to  inspect  and  regis- 
ter the  property  of  the  recent   signor,  and  among  these 
dividers  of  the  spoil  Carlo  Zeno  was  numbered.     The  set- 
tlement, however,  demanded  a  longer  absence  from  home 
than   his  advanced  years  now  rendered  convenient ;   and 
accordingly  he  solicited  recall,  and  received  the  desired  per- 
mission.    In  arranging  the  papers  of  Carrara,  a  memoran- 
dum was  found  touching  the  payment  of  400  ducats  to 
Zeno  ;  an  insignificant  transaction,  of  which,  by  accepting 
the  proffered  commissionership,  he  would  have  possessed 
full  power,  if  he  had  so  wished,  to  obUterate  every  trace. 
The  sum  too  was  so  utterly  unimportant  to  a  rich  Venetian 
noble,  distinguished  by  the  boundless  liberality  of  his  gen- 
eral expenditure,  and  by  the  magnificent  donations  which 
he  had  bestowed  upon  the  state  during  the  war  of  Chiozza, 
that  the  most  ingenious  jealousy  of  suspicion  could  scarcely 
exaggerate  this  trifling  payment  into  a  bribe  ;  even  if  the 
long  and  splendid  services,  the  tried  and  established  fidelity, 
and  the  spotless  and  unassailable  honour  of  the  personage 
chiefly  concerned,  had  failed  of  themselves  to  secure  him 
from  the  possibility  of  a  charge  so  monstrous.     No  whisper 
of  corruption,  however,  was  breathed,  and  not  a  shadow  of 
doubt  remained  upon  the  minds  of  the  commissioners  who 
denounced  Zeno  to  the  avvogadori,  of  the  avvogadari  who 
accused  him  to  the  Ten,  or  of  the  Ten  themselves  who  judged 
the  cause,  that  the  short  and  simple  explanation  oflfered  by 
the  defendant  was  in  strict  accordance  with  truth.     Zeno 
stated,  that  on  passing  through  Asti,  while  on  his  route  for 
investiture  by  Galeazzo  Visconti  with  the  government  of 
Milan,  he  found  Carrara,  at  that  time  a  prisoner,  destitute 
of  comforts  and  almost  even  of  necessaries  :  touched  with 
pity  for  the  low  fortunes  of  a  prince  at  once  a  personal 
fiiend,  an  ally  of  the  republic,   and  a  Venetian  senator, 
Zeno  opened  to  him  his  own  stores,  loaded  him  with  pres- 
ents, and  tendered  that  loan  of  which  the  memorandimi 
now  produced  was  but  a  note  of  repayment,  unwillingly  ac- 
cepted after  Carrara's  restoration.*     But  this  instinct  of  a 
frank  and  generous  nature  prompting  the  relief  of  a  great 
man  in  adversity,  had  nothing  in  it  which  could  awaken 
sympathy  in  the  cold  and  passionless  assembly  to  which  it 

*  Neque  petenti,  neque  volenti,  sed  ohstinati  etictm  recusanti,  et  plank 
invito.     Vit.  C.  Z«^m  ajnid  Muratori,  XIX.  345. 


12   DISGRACE  AND  DEATH  OF  CARLO  ZENO. 

was  related.  The  charge  upon  which  they  had  to  decide 
involved  a  money  transaction  with  a  foreign  potentate  ;  to 
lend  to  such  a  one  was  inconsistent  with  the  strict  duty  of 
a  Venetian,  but  to  receive  from  him  became  a  high  state 
crime.  The  iron  and  unbending  despotism  of  the  Venetian 
law  refused  to  admit  any  qualification  or  excuse  for  a  trans- 
gression of  its  literjil  ccije  :  and  the  very  splendour  of  Carlo 
Zeno's  name,  as  it  rendered  his  deviation  more  conspicuous, 
was  to  be  received,  not  as  a  plea  for  pardon,  but  in  aggrava- 
tion of  penalty.  He  was  sentenced  to  dismissal  from  all 
his  offices,  and  imprisonment  for  two  years.  That  such  a 
judgment  should  be  passed  accords  as  closely  with  the 
general  character  of  the  government  which  inflicted  it,  as 
implicit  and  unmurmuring  submission  does  with  that  of 
Zeno :  but  if  it  be  asked  why  his  fellow-citizens  did  not 
rise  as  one  man,  and  demand  the  liberation  of  their  great 
and  guiltless  hero,  the  chief  glory  of  their  country  and 
their  age  I  the  problem  must  be  resolved  either  by  the  want 
of  feeling  of  the  many,  or  their  want  of  power,  when  op- 
posed to  authority,  which,  although  administered  without 
regard  to  justice,  was  nevertheless  strongly  and  discreetly 
organized  for  its  own  maintenance  and  preservation. 

The  remaining  years  of  Carlo  Zeno's  life  were  spent 
almost  in  as  full  activity  as  those  of  his  youth.     We  read  of 
a  pilgrimage  to  Jerusalem,   of  his  employnaent  as  com- 
mander of  the  Cypriotes  in  repelling  an  invasion  of  the  Ge- 
noese, and  even  of  his  remarriage,  when  now  long  past  the 
psalmist's  limits  of  the  age  of  man.     Fully  retaining  all 
his  faculties  till  the  latest  moment,  he  expired  on  the  8th 
of  May,  1418,  a  few  days  after  the  completion  of  his  eighty- 
fourth  year.     His  body,  when  preparing  for  the  last  rites, 
exhibited  scars  of  no  fewer  than  thirty-five  wounds  ;  it  was 
interred  with  magnificent  honours  becoming  his  unexampled 
merits  ;  attended  by  the  doge  and  senate,  and  the  whole 
marshalled  population  of  his  fellow-citizens  ;  and  borne,  at 
their  zealous  and  express  desire,  by  the  mariners  who  had 
served  under  him,  and  who  eagerly  thronged  to  support  in 
turn  the  precious  burden.  The  Latin  funeral  oration  spoken 
at  his  grave  by  Leonardo  Justiniani  is  still  preserved  to  usj; 
and  if  it  cannot  rank  in  eloquence  with  those  of  Pericles 
and  Mark  Antony,  still  the  facts  which  it  relates  of  him 
who  is  its  subject  places  him  most  deservedly  among  those 


MILAN — FILIPPO-MARIA  VISCONTI. 


13 


very  few  of  mankind,  who,  not  less  by  their  solid  vit^iew 
than  by  their  dazzling  exploits,  have  attained  the  summit 
of  human  glory. 

It  is  to  Milan  that  the  thread  of  our  history  now  for  a 
while  reconducts  us.     Few  periods  of  heavier  calamity  ever 
afflicted  the  always  suffering  Lombard  cities  than 
that  which  is  comprised  in  the  ten  years  succeeding    f'  ^' 
the  demise  of  Giovanni-Galeazzo  Visconti.     Of  the      ^^' 
regency  of  his  widowed  Duchess  Catarina  we  have  already 
spoken ;  it  was  stained  by  weakness,  cruelty,  and 
bloodshed,  and  it  terminated  in  her  imprisonment  and    f'J^: 
violent  death  by  poison.    Giovanni-Maria,  the  eldest    ^^' 
of  Galeazzo's  two  legitimate  sons,  on  his  emancipation  from 
tutelage  and  accession  to  the  throne  of  Milan,  abandoned 
himself  to  the  wildest  impulses  of  insane  ferocity  ;  and  if 
the  chroniclers  may  be  believed,  he  slaked  his  unnatural 
thirst  for  blood  by  training  his  hounds  to  the  chase  of  crimi- 
nals, and  feeding  them  upon  human  flesh.     To  his  brother, 
Fihppo-Maria,  had  fallen  the  sovereignty  of  Pavia ;    but 
during  the  weakness  of  that  prince's  minority,  the  virtual 
rule  had  been  wrested  fi-om  him  by  the  ambition  of  Facirao 
Cane,  the  neighbouring  Lord  of  Alexandria ;  who  found 
little  difficulty  in  soon  afterward  extending  his  dominion 
over  Milan  itself.    That  he  still  permitted  the  brothers  whom 
lie  had  dethroned  to  live  must  be  attributed  to  his  own  want 
of  issue ;  and  the  terrified  Milanese,  perceiving  while  the 
usurper,  after  several  years  peaceable  rule,  lay  on  his  death- 
bed, that  his  authority  was  about  to  revert  to  the  monster 
whose  savage  nature  had  been  awhile  controlled, 
rose  in  a  body  and  massacred  Giovanni-Maria.  Faci-    ^'  Pi 
mo  Cane  survived  but  a  few  hours  after  this  outrage,    ^^^^' 
and  in  his  last  words,  as  if  he  himself  had  preserved  invio- 
late allegiance,  he  denounced  the  treachery  which  had  thus 
cut  oflf  the  legitimate  sovereign  of  Lombardy,  and  disre- 
garded the  natural  rights  of  the  son  of  her  ancient  lord.    It 
was  at  first  supposed  that  Filippo-Maria  would  be  involved 
in  a  fate  similar  to  that  of  his  brother,  and  that  the  throne 
would  be  transferred  to  Hector,  a  son  of  the  late  Bernabo 
Visconti :  but  Filippo,  with  a  foresight  little  expected  from 
his  youth,  lost  not  a  moment  in  securing  the  castle  of  Pavia 
aiid  proflTermg  his  hand  to  the  widow  of  Facimo  Cane. 
Their  disparity  of  years  (the  prince  was  twenty,  Beatrice 
Vol.  IL— B  ^ 


i 


mmMsm 


14 


Beatrice  tenda. 


Tenda,  whom  he  espoused,  double  that  age)  weighed  little? 
acrainst  the  substantial  advantages  of  this  alliance  ;  which 
secured  the  support  of  all  the  followers  of  Cane,  and  fimily 
established  Filippo-Maria  in  the  dukedom  of  his  late  father. 
Scarcely,  however,  did  he  feel  his  power  rooted,  before,  dis- 
regarding all  bonds  of  gratitude,  the  treacherous  prince 
threw  otf  his  disguise.     Beatrice,  no  longer  necessary  to 
promote  his  ambition,  proved  an  encumbrance  upon  his 
pleasures ;  and  at  the  expense  of  an  atrocious  crime,  he 
eagerly  sought  relief  from   her  oppressive  virtues  and  his 
own  burdensome  sense  of  obligation.     A  false  charge  of  in- 
fidelity hurried  her  to  the  scalfold  ;  and  the  pathetic  circum- 
stances attendant  upon  her  undeserved  fote— her  meek  yet 
noble  bearing — her  unshaken  avowals  of  innocence  even 
under  the  agonies  of  the  rack,  and  in  the  teeth  of  a  confes- 
sion extorted  by  similar  terrors  from  the  wretched  youth 
Michaele  Orombelli,  with  whom  it  was  attempted  to  crimi- 
nate her— her  dignified,  yet  not  bitter  upbraidings  of  his 
weakness— and  her  firm  reliance  that  Heaven,  though  now 
pressing    sorely  on  her  in  its  visitation,  would  hereafter 
rescue  her  memory  from  dishonour — might  be  turned  to 
good  account,  from  the  pages  in  which  Andrea  Billio*has 
recorded  them,  by  any  future  poet  who  may  venture  once 
again  to  dramatize  the  parallel  sad  tale  of  Smeaton  and  our 
own  Anna  Boleyn. 

Filippo-Maria  by  no  means  dissembled  that  it  was  his  in- 
tention to  attempt  the  recovery  of  his  entire  hereditary  do- 
minions, and  in  the  event  of  his  success,  Venice,  among 
other  powers,  must  prepare  for  restitution.  Of  all  those 
governments  which  had  regarded  the  progress  of  Visconti 
with  jealousy,  and  combated  it  with  vigour,  none  continued 
more  forward  in  demonstrations  of  vigilance  and  opposition 
than  Florence  ;  and  in  their  common  danger  she  earnestly 
solicited  the  accession  of  Venice  to  a  general  league  of 
northern  Italy  against  the  overweening  ambition  of  Milan. 
It  is  not  often  that  history,  before  the  invention  of  the  art 
of  printing,  affords  documents  so  precise  as  those  with 
which  this  transaction  may  be  illustrated  ;  for  Sanuto,  an 
author  of  high  rank  and  of  indisputable  veracity,  who 
wrote  within  fifty  years  of  the  event,  has  presented  us  with 

*  Hist.  Mediol  III.  51,  apud  Murat.  XIX. 


debates  on  the   FLORENTINE  ALLIANCE.       15 

a  transcript  of  the  very  speeches  delivered  by  the  Doge 
Monceuigo  in  the  debates  relating  to  this  Florentine  nego- 
tiation.    They  are  copies,  as  the  chronicle  assures  us,  from 
the  original  MS.  communicated  by  the  doge  himself;  and 
they  must  be  received  therefore,  not  as  representing  such 
arguments  as  the  historian  imagined  might  have  been  era- 
ployed,  but  those  which  really  and  absolutely  fell  from  the 
mouth  of  the  speaker.     The  great  advocate  in  the  Venetian 
council  for  this  alliance,  and  for  war  against  Milan,  was 
Francesco  J^oscari,  one  of  the  procuratori ;  a  sage  whose 
wisdom  was  matured  by  the  experience  of  fifty  winters,  yet 
whom   Moncenijjo    nevertheless  addresses   throuijhout   as 
"  youthful  procuratore  /"     He  presses  him  by  arguments 
from  a  most  extensive  range  of  history  both  sacred  and 
profane,  not  always,  it  must  be  confessed  indeed,  drawn 
with  very  strict  logical  precision.     "  God,"  he  says,  as  the 
substance  of  his  speech  may  be  paraphrased,  *'  created  the 
angels  and  gifted  them  with  free-will,  but  unhappily  they 
chose  evil  instead  of  good,  and  therefore  they  fell ;  even  so 
have  the  Florentines  fallen  by  preferring  war  to  peace,  and 
so  shall  loe   also   fall  if  we  imitate  their  example.     God 
created  Adam  wise,  good,  and  perfect,  and  it  was  by  disobe- 
dience that  he  lost  Paradise  ;  the  Florentines  have  done  in 
like  manner,  and  even  so  shall  we  do  also  if  we  permit  our- 
selves to  be  seduced  by  the  youthful  procuratore.     As  in  the 
deluge  all  men  except  the  just  Noah  and  his  family  were 
drowned,  so  will  the  Florentines  be  obliged  to  take  refuge 
in  our  ark  from  the  destruction  which  they  are  calling  down 
upon  themselves.      As  after  the  deluge  the  race  of  giants, 
forgetting  the  fear  of  God,  had  their  single  tongue  split 
into  sixty-six  languages,  and  in  the  end  separated  from  each 
other  and  disappeared  for  ever,  so  will  the  Florentine  lan- 
guage give  place  to  sixty-six  dialects,  and  the  inhabitants  of 
that  city  will  be  scattered  widely  over  the  earth.     It  was 
peace  which  constituted  the  magnificence  of  Troy,  swelled 
her  population,  increased  her  palaces,  multiplied  her  trea» 
sures,  enhanced  her  arts,  and  strengthened  her  with  pow- 
erftil  throngs  of  chiefs,  kniirhfs^  and  barons ;  war,  on  the 
other  hand,  was  her  destruction,  as  war  will  be  the  destruc- 
tion of  Florence.     It  was  the  idolatry  of  Solomon  and  the 
fipostacy  of  Rehoboam  which  gave  birth  to  the  schism  of 
the  Ten  Tribes  :  even  su,*'  continues  the  orator, — although 


16 


DEATH  AND  CHARACTER  OF 


THE  DOGE  MONCENIGO. 


17 


f 


here  the  thread  of  his  argument  is  too  finely  spun  to  be  re- 
tained by  our  grasp — "  the  towns  now  ruled  by  Florence 
will  be  transferred  to  Milan.     Rome,  thanks  to  her  govern- 
ment and  to  peace,  became  great  and  powerful"—  an  asser- 
tion which  either  betrays  on  the  part  of  the  doge  no  small 
unacquaintance  with  the  state-craft  of  the  eternal  city,  or 
else  exhibits  no  slight  dexterity  in  appropriating  to  his  pur- 
pose a  very  stubborn  and  inapplicable  argument,     "  The 
first  Punic  war,  but  for  Scipio,  would  have  occasioned  her 
overthrow,  and  her  succeeding  restlessness  and  ambition 
subjected  her  to  the  tyranny  of  CaBsar  ;  so  Florence,  by  her 
love  of  war,  is  preparing  for  herself  a  military  despotism." 
After  these  and  many  similar  reasonings,  expanded  far  be- 
yond the  compressed  form  in  which  they  appear  above,  we 
are  presented  with  a  very  singular  and  important  tabular 
view  of  Lombardo- Venetian  commerce,  in  which  the  ex- 
ports and  imports  from  the  Lagune  are  valued  at  the  great 
annual  sum  of  28,800,000  ducats.*     Well  might  Monce- 
nigo  ask,  "  Think  you  not  this  a  very  pretty  garden  for 
Venice,  youthful  procuratore  ?"     The  Florentines  however, 
in  a  new  embassy,  sought  arguments  from  the  doge's  own 
school,  and  employed  them  with  equal  precision  of  applica- 
tion.    *'  If  Venice,"  they  said,  "  did  not  come  to  their  suc- 
cour, they  must  act  like  Samson,  who  uprooted  a  column, 
in  order  that  by  destroying  Dagon's  temple  he  might  whelm 
his  enemies  together  with  himself."     In  spite  of  this  rep- 
resentation the  pacific  counsels  of  the  doge  prevailed,  and 
while  his  life  continued  the  league  was  deferred,  and  a 
treaty  often  years'  alliance  confirmed  with  Visconti.  Mon- 
cenigo,  finding  his  end  approaching,  assembled  the  chief  sen- 
ators round  his  sick  bed,  and  having  once  more  renewed  his 
exhortations  for  the  careful  avoidance  of  rash  and  hasty 
measures  which  might  embroil  the  state  in  a  ruinous  war, 
he  ran  over  to  them  the  characters  of  those  nobles  who 
might  probably  be  candidates  for  the  succession  after  his 
death ;  and  having  commended  most  of  them  for  virtue  and 
ability,  he  concluded  by  adding,  that  "  those  who  may  pro- 
pose to  you  Francesco  Foscari  cannot  have  deliberated  pro- 

*  The  agreeable  writer  of  the  History  of  Italy,  under  the  name  of 
George  Perceval,  calculates  the  current  ducat  of  that  time  at  3«.  6d.  ; 
the  golden  ducat  (of  which  Venice  coined  a  million  annually)  at  14*. ; 
And  money  at  about  six  times  its  present  value.— (II.  74-> 


foujidly  on  their  intention.  God  preserve  you  from  such  a 
choice  !  for  if  it  be  made,  you  will  have  war  :  then  those 
who  have  10,000  ducats  will  be  reduced  to  1000,  those  who 
have  ten  houses  will  retain  but  one,  and  every  thing  also  will 
be  diminished  in  similar  proportion.  Reputation,  credit, 
property  will  be  at  an  end  ;  and  instead  of  remaining  mas- 
ters of  your  hired  soldiers,  you  will  find  yourselves  reduced 
to  be  their  slaves." 

Moncenigo  died  in  the  spring  of  1423,  at  the  advanced 
age  of  eighty.     He  was  well  versed  in  the  commercial  and 
maritime  aflfairs  of  his  country,  and  he  advanced  them  to 
unexampled  prosperity.     A  census  taken  under  his  reign 
fixed  the  population  of  the  capital  at  190,000  souls;  and 
the  embellishment  of  his  great  metropolis  was  a  favourite 
object  with  this  wise  prince.     By  him  was  laid  the  founda- 
tion of  the  library  of  St.  Mark,  to  the  construction  of  which 
he  apportioned  4000  ducats  yearly  from  the  duties  on  salt ; 
but  the  work  was  often  interrupted,  and  not  renewed  with 
activity  till  a  century  after  his  death.     If  we  hesitate  re- 
specting his  claim  to  eloquence,  we  must  willingly  concede 
to  him  the  praise  of  sound  discretion  ;  and  of  his  singular 
firmness  of  purpose  and  disinterestedness  a  very  remarkable 
instance  remains  to  be  produced.     An  accidental  fire  having 
destroyed  great  part  of  St.  Mark's,  injured  much  also  of 
the  ancient  ducal  palace  ;  yet  the  awogadorij  ever  anxious 
to  depress  the  majesty  of  the  prince,  while  they  proceeded 
to  the  immediate  restoration  of  the  cathedral,  procured  a 
decree,  rendering  it  highly  penal  for  any  one  to  suggest  the 
rebuilding  of  the  palace  ;  and  affixing  a  fine  of  1000  ducats 
to  the  bare  a,dvancen)ent  of  such  a  proposal.     Moncenigo, 
at  one  of  the  meetings  of  the  senate,  poured  the  stipulated 
fine  on  the  council  table,  and  having  purchased  full  Uberty 
of  speech  at  that  lavish  price,  he  persisted  in  urging  upon 
the  nobles  the  necessity  of  lodging  their  chief  magistrate 
in  an  edifice  becoming  the  dignity  of  the  republic,  till  he 
obtained  their  assent  to  the  commencement  of  that  pile 
which  contributes  so  largely,  at  the  present  hour,  to  the 
magnificence  of  Venetian  architecture. 

After  a  deliberation  of  six  days,  hi  the  course  of  which 
nine  scrutinies  occurred,  Francesco  Foscari,  the 
very  procuratore  whom  Moncenigo  had  denounce<il,     1^*90* 
was  elected  doge,  by  dint  of  gold ;  and  the  ascend- 

B2 


"ir 


18 


FLORENCE  AGAIN  NEGOTIATES 


FOR  ALLIANCE. 


19 


ency  of  the  war  faction  was  thus  estabhshed.  When  he 
was  about  to  be  announced  to  the  populace  m  the  hitherto 
customary  form,  "We  have  chosen  Francesco  Foscari  doge, 
if  such  be  your  pleasure,"  the  grand  chancellor  somewhat 
naively  inquired,  "And  if  the  people  were  to  say  'iNo, 
what  would  you  do]"  This  question  suggested  a  danger 
which  it  was  thought  politic  to  avoid,  and  accordingly  the 
election  was  notified  to  the  assembled  commons,  for  the  first 
time,  in  these  words,  «  We  have  chosen  Francesco  Toscari 
doge  ;"  a  formula  which  henceforward  prevailed  in  all  sub- 
sequent accessions,  and  which  swept  away  the  single  re- 
maining memorial  of  the  original  popular  privileges.* 

The  opening  of  Foscari's  reign  was  unpropiUous,  tor  the 
plague  reappeared  in  December,  and  carried  off  full  16,000 
souls ;  and  now  for  the  first  time,  notwithstanding  the  often 
*    repeated  visitations  which  we  have  had  occasion  to  notice, 
and  the  mortality  consequent  upon  them,  were  public  mea- 
sures adopted  to  prevent  the  recurrence  of  a  like  fearful 
calamity.      The   rudiments   of  the   health-office  and   the 
foundation   of  the   lazaretto  vecchiOf   on   the   island    still 
devoted  to  the  same  important  use,  are  attributed  to  this 
period.      Five  years  of  alliance  still  remained  unexpired 
between  Milan  and  Venice,  yet  Florence  was  unceasing  in 
her  efforts  to  produce  a  rupture  of  the  treaty.     In  the  field, 
she  had  been  everywhere  unfortunate,  and  defeat  rapidly 
succeeding  defeat  rendered  foreign  aid  indispensable  if  she 
hoped  to  preserve  a  shadow  of  independence.    But  the  very 
necessities  which  increased  her  urgency  diminished  the  va- 
lue of  her  alliance  ;  and  when  her  ambassadors,  admitted 
by  the  senate  to  their  third  audience,  declaimed  against  the 
ambition  of  Visconti,  and  impressed  upon  the   Venetians 
that  their  liberty  would  not  long  survive  the  overthrow  of 
Florence,  the  council,  notwithstanding  the  avowed  tendency 
of  Foscari's  wishes,  lent  but  a  cold  ear  to  their  entreaties. 
The  counter  declarations  of  the  Duke  of  Milan,  whose  en- 
voys vaunted  the  constant  amity  which  their  piaster  had 
exhibited  towards  the  republic,  and  the  moderation,  justice, 
and  pacific  temper  which  he  had  manifested  by  his  cession 
of  Verona,  Vicenza,  and  Padua,  all  indisputably  ancient 
possessions  of  his  house,  were  not  likely  to  be  received  by 

*  Sanuto  aptid  Murat,  zxii.  967. 


the  senate  as  altogether  true ;  but  it  was  impossible  to  deny 
the  soundness  of  that  principle  which  recommended  them 
not  to  seek  by  injustice  a  security  which  they  already  pos- 
sessed, which  had  never  been  violated,  and  which  war  was 
far  less  likely  to  guaranty  than  peace.  To  these  powerful 
arguments  neither  the  Florentines  nor  the  doge,  who  es- 
poused  their  cause,  could  offer  any  satisfactory  reply  ;  and 
this  mission,  like  those  which  preceded  it,  would  probably 
have  been  unavailing,  but  for  the  unexpected  influence  oli- 
tamed  and  exercised  at  the  moment  by  a  foreigner,  now  a 
disgraced  fugitive  from  Milan,  and  once  a  formidable  enemy 
to  Florence.  "^ 

The  later  princes  of  the  house  of  Visconti,  however  suc- 
cessful in  war,  exhibited  but  little  military  enterprise  in  their 
own  persons  ;  and  they  were  indebted  for  victory  far  more 
to  their  prudent  choice  of  commanders  than  to  any  skill  or 
prowess  of  their  own.     Necessity,  however,  at  the  moment 
of  Facimo  Cane's  death,  had  compelled  Filippo-Maria  to 
appear  at  the  head  of  his  troops  ;  and  in  a  rencounter  under 
the  walls  of  Monza,  during  that  short  critical  period  in 
which  his  fortunes  were  wavering  in  the  balance,  he  had 
noted  with  especial  admiration  the  distinguished  gallantry 
of  one  of  his  followers.     Francesco  Buffo,  the  son  of  a 
peasant  at  Carmagnuola,  dashed  forward  from  the  ranks  in 
which  he  served  as  a  private  ;  and  closely  pursuing  Hector 
Visconti  (the  shadow  whom  the  antagonists  of   Filippo- 
Maria  opposed  to  him),  but  for  a  stumble  of  his  horse,  would 
have  captured  the  flying  prince,  in  spite  of  the  resistance 
of  a  numerous  suite  by  which  he  was  protected.     Filippo 
praised  and  rewarded  the  service  on  the  spot,  and  fresh  in- 
stances of  valour  led  rapidly  to  fresh  promotions.     Placed 
at  length  at  the  head  of  the  Milanese  armies,  Carmagnuola 
ful  y  justified  the  high  confidence  reposed  in  him  ;  and  in  a 
brilliant  career  of  eight  years  of  uninterrupted  glory,  he 
won  for  his  hitherto  not  ungrateful  master  twenty  rich 
cities  in  that  strong  district  of  Lombardy  which  is  bounded 
by  the  Adda,  the  Tesino,  and  the  Alps.     Genoa  also,  and 
even  the  difficult  passages  of  St.  Gothard,  submitted  to  him ; 
and  he  earned  victory  on  the  sword's  point  from  the  fron- 
tiers of  Piedmont  to  those  of  the  Territory  of  the  Church. 
Wealth,  station,  favour,  and  patronage  for  awhile  were  lav- 
ished on  the  hero ;  he  was  created  Count  of  Castehiuovo ; 


20 


CARMAGNUOLA. 


he  received  the  hand  of  a  natural  dauglitcr  of  liis  prince  j 
and  this  connexion  with  the  reigning  family  was  still  more 
closely  cemented  by  a  formal  adoption,  and  by  his  investi- 
ture with  its  name  as  Francesco  Carmagnuola  de'  Viscontl. 
But  it  is  easy  for  the  favourite  of  a  jealous  and  despotic 
master  to  perform  services  which  awaken  suspicion  instead 
of  gratitude ;  and  Carmagnuola  was  already  too  rich,  too 
brave,  too  powerful,  and  too  fortunate  for  his  own  safety. 
Whether  the  capricious  attachment  of  Visconti  was  satiated, 
and  required  change  ;  whether  the  possessor  of  his  favour 
abused  it  by  importunity  ;  or  whether  those  whom  the  ele- 
vation of  Carmagnuola  had  depressed,  discovered  a  fitting 
season  to  undermine  him,  cannot  now  be  affirmed  with  cer- 
tainty :  but  most  probably  all  three  causes  were  in  some 
degree  united  in  giving  birth  to  the  coldness  with  which  Fi- 
iippo  began  to  regard  him,  and  afterward  in  rapidly  increas- 
ing this  coldness  to  disgust.     Numerous  petty  slights,  and 
breaches  of  faith  as  well  as  of  courtesy,  testified  this  change. 
An  important  command,  already  promised  to  Carmagnuola, 
was  bestowed,  without  explanation,  upon  another  and  a  much 
inferior  officer ;  the  troops  mo^t  attached  to  his  person  were 
sedulously  withdrawn  from  him ;  and  his  remonstrances 
were  received  with  haughty  and  contemptuous  silence.    Ir- 
ritated by  these  marked  and  repeated  affronts,  Carmagnuola 
repaired  hastily  to  the  palace,  and  demanded  a  special  au- 
dience ;  but  he  was  stopped  in  the  antechamber  by  some 
frivolous  pretexts  of  the  duke's  engagements,  and  he  there 
terminated  an  angry  scene  of  expostulation  by  open  reproach 
and  menace.     Perceiving  that  his  fall  was  determined,  he 
instantly  took  horse,  and,  throwing  up  all  his  employments, 
rode  at  lull  speed  to  the  frontiers  of  Savoy,  and  sought  pro- 
tection from  Amadeus  VIII.,  the  first  duke  of  that  province, 
to  whom  he  was  by  birth  a  vassal.     Having  revealed  to  that 
wise  prince  enough  of  the  ambitious  designs  of  Visconti  to 
excite  apprehension  and  awaken  a  hostile  feeling,  Carma- 
gnuola passed  on  through  Trent  and  Treviso  to 
Venice,  where  he  was  received  by  Foscari  with  open 
arms,  and  immediately  engaged  with  three  hundred 
lances  in  the  service  of  the  republic.     No  pains  were  spared 
by  him  to  kindle  the  slumbering  flames  of  war;  but  the 
senate,  although  glad  of  securing  a  commander  of  so  high 
distinction  and  ability,  still  warily  hesitated  to  bestow  full 


A*  D. 
1425. 


CARMAGNUOLA  ENGAGED  BY  VENICE.  21 

confidence  on  his  representations.  His  rupture  with  Vis- 
conti might  after  all  be  only  simulated,  in  order  that,  avail- 
ing himself  of  pretended  disgrace,  he  might  become  ac- 
quainted with  the  secret  councils  of  doubtful  friends  Such 
treachery  was  far  from  being  unprecedented,  and  unhappily 
too  much  characterized  the  policy  of  Milan.  Even  when 
the  enraged  duke  proceeded  to  confiscate  the  fugitive's  prop- 
erty, and  sequestered  a  rental  of  forty  thousand  florins, 
the  conviction  of  the  signory  as  to  the  sincerity  of  Cannal 
gnuola  was  still  incomplete  :  nor  was  it  till  an  attempt  upon 
his  hfe  by  poison  was  traced,  by  evidence  not  to  be  impugned, 
to  the  agency  of  Filippo-Maria,  that  imphcit  credence  was 
favouritV      ^^"^^^  of"  that  prince's  hatred  against  his  former 

It  was  at  this  moment  that  the  Florentines  made  their 
last  appea  ;  and  Foscari,  perceiving  the  backwardness  of 
the  council  to  second  his  own  eager  desire  for  war,  dexter- 
ously employed  to  his  purpose  the  strong  feeling  which  Car- 
niagnuola  s  recent  escape  from  assassination  had  excited. 
At  the  close  of  the  debate,  he  asked  permission  to  introduce 
his  injured  fhend  to  the  senate,  in  order  that  they  miffht 
profit  by  his  intimate  acquaintance  with  the  affairs  of  Mi- 
lan. Carmagnuola  was  accordingly  admitted  to  the  coun- 
cil-charaber ;  and  there,  the  vivid  picture  which  he  drew  of 
his  own  personal  wrongs,  the  warmth  which  the  frank  spi- 

'^^^^ fi,    I  ?,^'^'^^  ^^^'^^^^  ^"^^  ^^^  pleadings  of  the  orator, 
and  the  bold  and  abrupt  eloquence  which  vented  itself  in 
denunciations  of  vengeance  and  predictions  of  victory,  so 
far  gained  upon  the  kindled  passions  of  his  auditors,  that 
when  they  proceeded  to  ballot,  a  large  majority  decided  for 
war.     A  treaty  therefore  was  speedily  concluded  with  Flor- 
ence,  by  which  the  two  republics  engaged  to  furnish,  at 
their  joint  expense,  16,000  horse  and  half  as  many  foot :  a 
Venetian  fleet  was  to  ascend  the  Po,  while  the  Florentines 
equipped  a  maritime  expedition  against  Genoa:  the  Apen- 
nines were  to  form  the  boundary  line  in  a  division  of  con- 
quests, and  neither  party  was  to  conclude  a  separate  peace. 
The  Marquis  of  Ferrara,  the  Lord  of  Mantua,  the 
King  of  Arragon,  the  Duke  of  Savoy,  and  the  citi-     /,' ?• 
zens  of  Sienna  were  admitted  to  this  league,  which      ^^^^• 
was  signed  on  the  27th  of  January,  when  Carmagnuola 
was  declared  captain-general  of  the  army  of  Venice! 


w^ 


22 


PARTIAL  CAPTURE  OF  BRESCIA. 


SURRENDER  OF  BRESCIA. 


23 


f  J 


In  the  following  March  Carmagnucla  opened  tlie  cam- 
paign by  a  bold  attempt  on  Brescia,  a  city  which  had  been 
wrested  from  the  Princes  Delia  Scala  by  Galeazzo  Visconti, 
had  been  occupied  during  the  minority  of  his  son  by  the 
Malatesti  of  Rimini,  and  had  latterly  been  won  back  for 
Filippo-Maria  by  Curmagnuola  himself.  Few  places  were 
more  distracted  by  internal  schism,  and  the  partisans  of  the 
ancient  Guelph  and  Ghibelline  factions  respectively  occupied 
distinct  quarters  of  the  city.  Carmagnuola  still  maintained 
an  intimate  conn-i'xion  with  the  last-named  party,  and  it 
was  chiefly  througfh  their  assistance  that  he  now  hoped  to 
compass  his  enterprise.  In  order  to  understand  his  opera- 
tions, it  should  be  borne  in  mind  that  Brescia,  far  from  pre- 
senting a  single  line  of  walls,  might  in  truth  be  more  prop- 
erly described  as  composed  of  many  separate  fortresses.* 
Three  several  ramparts,  at  considerable  intervals  from  each 
other,  encompassed  a  hill,  and  all  of  these  were  in  posses- 
sion of  the  Milanese  faction.  It  was  into  another  quarter, 
on  the  plain,  that  Carmagnuola  was  secretly  admitted  in 
the  night  of  the  17th  of  March,  and  even  then  the  gate 
which  communicated  with  the  upper  town  remained  in  the 
hands  of  his  enemies.  The  rapidity  of  this  movement  took 
Visconti  by  surprise,  and  his  troops  were  but  assembling  in 
Romagna  when  he  received  intelligence  of  his  disaster ;  to 
remedy  which  he  put  in  motion  such  masses  of  cavalry  as 
were  already  concentrated,  under  four  of  the  most  distin- 
guished condottieri  of  the  age,  Angelo  della  Pergola,  Nicolo 
Piccinino,  Guido  Torello,  and  Francesco  Sforza.  The  short 
time,  however,  which  Carmagnuola  had  gained  in  advance 
was  actively  and  most  eflfectually  employed  ;  and  in  order 
both  to  protect  his  own  position  from  the  sallies  of  the  gar- 
rison, and  also  to  prevent  the  relief  of  the  city  by  the  army, 
which  he  doubted  not  would  soon  attempt  to  raise  the  siege, 
he  commenced  and  completed,  notwithstanding  an  interrup- 
tion by  illness  which  compelled  him  to  have  recourse  to  the 
baths  of  Padua,  a  military  work  which  writers  of  the  time 
describe  as  unparalleled  in  the  history  of  war.  Between 
those  portions  of  the  city  which  still  held  out  and  that  occu- 
pied by  himself,  he  traced  a  strong  line  of  contravallation, 

*  The  site  of  Brescia  is  very  clearly  described  by  Poggio  Braccjolini* 
^liat.  Floreiit.  V.  ajnid  Murat.  xi.\.  340. 


nnd  in  his  rear  a  similar  circumvallation.  The  circuit  of 
the  outer  work  was  not  less  than  five  miles  in  length  ;  each 
line  presented  a  breastwork  surmounted  by  wooden  towers 
at  frequent  intervals,  and  strengtliened  by  a  ditch  twelve 
feet  deep  and  twenty  broad.  Whether  from  the  difficulty 
of  combining  their  scattered  forces,  or  from  the  mutual 
jealousy  which  almost  invariably  accompanies  a  divided 
command,  the  Milanese  captains  were  slow  in  advance ; 
and  when  towards  the  middle  of  May  they  encamped  with 
15,000  men  within  sight  of  Brescia,  the  works  of  Carma- 
gnuola (whose  numbers  were  almost  of  the  same  amount) 
although  not  yet  finished,  presented  a  face  which  Della  Per- 
gola thought  much  too  formidable  to  be  attacked.  So  stu- 
pendous, indeed,  were  these  lines  considered,  that  an  officer 
of  the  Milanese  army,  upon  hearing  that  they  were  pro- 
jected,  expressed  his  joy  at  the  design.  "  Nothing,"  he 
said,  "  was  more  to  be  desired  in  an  enemy  than  an  attempt 
so  extravagant  and  insane  ;  to  execute  which  must  not  only 
exceed  the  wealth  and  power  of  Venice,  but  would  exhaust 
even  the  immeasurable  resources  which  fable  had  attributed 
to  Xerxes." 

If  the  strength  of  Carmagnuola's  lines  deterred  the  Mi- 
lanese when  they  first  reconnoitred  them,  every  hour  con- 
tributed to  increase  the  difficulty  of  assault,  and,  when  fin- 
ished, they  were  really  impregnable.  While  the  generals 
of  Visconti  wasted  their  time  in  unworthy  dissensions,  and 
their  forces  in  unconnected  skirmishes,  or  straggling,  preda* 
tory  excursions,  Carmagnuola  vigorously  pressed  the  garri- 
son, now  hopeless  of  relief,  and  suffering  from  famine.  "^  Out 
of  1400  men,  of  which  it  was  originally  composed,  scarcely 
400  now  remained  fit  for  service ;  yet  these  defended  their 
several  fortifications  foot  by  foot ;  and  it  was  not  till  afler 
a  close  siege  of  eight  months,  during  which  they  were  ex- 
posed day  and  night  to  a  destructive  artillery  and  to  almost 
hourly  assaults,  that,  driven  within  their  last  shattered 
rampart,  they  capitulated  on  the  20th  of  November,  with 
the  fullest  honours  of  war  ;  and  marched  out  from  the  cita- 
del amid  general  expressions  of  respect  and  admiration,  even 
from  their  conquerors. 

The  loss  of  Brescia  was  the  chief  disaster  which  Visconti 
suffered  daring  this  short  campaign.  The  Venetian  flotilla, 
indeed,  had  mounted  the  Po  to  Cremona,  the  brido^e  of  which 


24 


VISCONTI   MAKES   PEACE. 


RENEWAL    OF    HOSTILITIES. 


25 


it  had  destroyed,  and  afterward  had  insulted  Pavia  itself  j 
b«t  the  Milanese  army  was  unimpaired,  for  it  had  not  yet 
been  engaged.  Its  conduct,  however,  had  been  unsatisfac- 
tory, and  the  condition  of  the  duchy  was  not  without  haz- 
ard. The  sole  ally  whom  Filippo-Maria  retained  in  Italy 
was  Pope  Martin  V.,  a  prince  scarcely  less  ambitious  than 
himself,  and  who  saw  in  the  zeal  which  it  suited  the  Duke 
of  Milan  to  profess  for  the  church  bright  hopes  of  that  in- 
crease of  ecclesiastical  power  which  chiefly  occupied  his 
own  thoughts.  By  the  mediation  of  that  pontiff  a  peace 
was  concluded,  for  the  attainment  of  which  Vieconti 
.  '  *  was  content  to  abandon  to  Venice  his  claim  upon 
*  Brescia,  and  much  of  its  surrounding  district ;  and 
to  the  Duke  of  Savoy  a  few  unimportant  forts  upon  which 
he  had  seized.  Carmagnuola  was  not  forgotten  in  this  ne- 
gotiation ;  and  one  express  condition  of  the  treaty  stipulated 
that  his  family  should  be  released  from  the  imprisonment  to 
which  they  had  been  consigned  on  his  fl^ight  from  Milan. 
As  a  further  testimony  of  the  gratitude  of  Venice,  his  name 
was  enrolled  in  her  Golden  Book. 

The  announcement  of  this  peace,  so  dishonourable  to 
their  country,  was  received  with  deep  murmurs  by  the  Mi- 
lanese nobles,  and  they  remonstrated  in  energetic  terms  with 
Filippo-Maria  against  its  ratification.  They  implored  him 
to  rely  upon  the  valour  and  fidelity  which  they  swore  to 
dedicate  to  his  service,  to  accept  the  sacrifices  which  they 
were  prepared  to  make  in  his  support,  and  to  appoint  cap- 
tains over  the  10,000  horse,  and  an  equal  number  of  infantry, 
which  they  engaged  to  raise  and  maintain  at  their  own  ex- 
pense, provided  only  that  he  would  intrust  the  revenue  to 
their  administration.  The  duke  accepted  their  offers  ;  but, 
jealous  of  any  invasion  of  his  despotism  by  an  exercise, 
however  trifling,  of  aristocratical  influence,  he  refused  the 
conditions  with  which  they  were  accompanied.  In  order 
yet  further  to  recruit  his  army,  while  the  Venetians,  as  yet 
unsuspicious  of  his  intentions,  disbanded  their  condottieriy 
he  carefully  engaged  them  himself,  and  swelled  his  ranks 
by  the  careless  facility  with  which  mercenaries,  if  they  do 
but  receive  full  security  for  pay,  are  content  to  pass  from; 
one  service  to  another  the  most  directly  opposite* 
1427  "^^^^  strengthened,  he  eluded,  under  various  pre- 
texts, the  evacuation  of  the  posts  which  he  had* 


agreed  to  surrender,  and  early  in  the  following  spring  in- 
vaded the  territory  of  Mantua. 

It  would  afford  little  entertainment  if  we  were  to  pursue 
with  minuteness  the  events  of  the  renewed  war.     The  state 
of  Carmagnuola's  health,  apparently  never  strong,  and  now 
more  than  usually  aflfected  by  a  fall  from  his  horse,  pre- 
vented him  from  assuming  the  command  immediately  on 
this  aggression  ;  and  the  Milanese  in  consequence  obtained 
some  advantages,  notwithstajiding  that  their  flotilla  on  the 
Po,  after  two  days'  bloody  combat  near  Cremona,  was  totally 
destroyed.     When  Carmagnuola  rejoined  the  army,  fortune 
for  a  short  time  continued  to  vary ;  Casal  Maggiore  was 
taken  and  retaken,  and  its  recovery  enabled  the'Venetians 
to  advance  upon  Cremona,  with  the  intention  of  engaging 
in  Its  siege.     The  Milanese,  equally  prepared  to  oppose  this 
design,  were  reinforced  by  15,000  volunteers  from  their 
capital ;    and  Filippo-Maria  for  the  first  time  encouraged 
his  army  by  his  presence.    The  hostile  forces  were  encamped 
opposite  each  other  at  Casal  Secco,  about  three  miles  in 
front  of  Cremona,  and  a  natural  fosse  which  separated  their 
hues  was  for  some  time  a  barrier  which  neither  of  them 
cared  to  pass.     On  the  12th  of  July,  however,  the  Milanese, 
eager  for  distinction  under  the  immediate  eye  of  their  prince, 
attempted  to  force  that  defence,  and  some  squadrons  suc- 
ceeded m  penetrating  the  Venetian  camp.     There,  envel- 
oped m  clouds  of  summer  dust,  the  cavalry  charged  at  haz- 
ard, without  the  power  of  distinguishing  either  their  own 
movements  or  those  of  their  enemy.     The  confiision  became 
general,  and,  had  they  been  duly  seized,  opportunities  oc- 
curred on  both  sides  of  capturing  most  of  the  leading  ofllcers 
of  the  opposite  party.     Carmagnuola  was  dismounted,  and 
fought  for  a  considerable  time  on  foot ;  the  Duke  of  Mantua 
was  separated  from  his  followers,  and  surrounded  by  cue- 
mies ;  and  Sforza  found  himself  in  hke  manner  abandoned 
by  his  suite,  and  left  in  the  very  heart  of  the  Venetian 
camp.     The  afl'ray,  for  it  was  no  other,  terminated  indeci- 
sively,  and  without  further  advantage  to  either  side  than 
T^^/??  ^^^  Venetians  might  claun  from  the  retirement  of 
the  Milanese  to  their  own  lines.     Filippo-Maria  had  seen 
enough  of  war,  and  hastened  back  to  Milan. 

♦k'^i^i^^®^^"^^^"^  existing  among  his  generals  induced 
the  Duke  of  Milan  at  this  season  to  intrust  the  chief  com- 
VOL.  II. — C 


26 


BATTLE  OF  MACALO. 


CHARACTER  OF  THE  CONDOTTIERI. 


27 


li 


raand  of  his  army  to  one  whose  high  lineage  ^Vould,  as  he 
imagined,  ensure  implicit  obedience  ;  and  Carlo  Malatesta, 
son  of  the  Lord  of  Rimini,  made  his  first  essay  in  arms  at 
the  close  of  this  campaign.  From  a  very  natural  anxiety 
to  create  a  reputation  commensurate  with  that  of  the  great 
leaders  who  served  under  him,  he  was  impatient  for  battle, 
and  soon  hazarded  a  rash  and  ill-advised  engagement.  Car- 
raagnuola  early  in  October  was  advantageously  posted 
among  the  Cremonese  marshes,  not  far  from  the  town  of 
fMacafo.  His  ground  was  well  chosen  ;  he  had  personally 
*  reconnoitred  every  point  of  it ;  and  he  had  omitted  no  care 
to  defend  its  only  practicable  approach  by  directing  upon  it 
the  cross  fire  of  numerous  masked  batteries ;  every  firmer 
spot  also  which  he  found  tenable  amid  the  fenny  ground 
was  occupied  by  troops  placed  in  ambuscade  behind  what- 
ever cover  it  afforded  ;  and  the  main  body  of  his  infantry 
fronted  a  long,  winding,  narrow,  and  intricate  causeway,  by 
which,  if  the  Milanese  intended  to  attack,  they  must  of  ne- 
cessity advance  ;  and  which,  therefore,  was  left  apparently 
unguarded,  in  order  to  allure  them.  Two  thousand  horse, 
meanwhile,  were  detached  to  turn  the  morass,  with  orders, 
if  an  engagement  should  ensue,  to  fall  upon  the  enemy's 
rear.  In  opposition,  as  it  is  said,  to  the  opinion  and  judg- 
ment of  each  of  the  four  chief  condottieri,  to  control  whose 
mutual  jealousy  Malatesta  had  been  commissioned,  he  de- 
termined to  force  this  perilous  causeway.  Scarcely,  how- 
^  ever,  had  his  columns  become  entangled  on  its  path^ 

before  they  were  assailed  on  both  flanks  by  unex- 
pected volleys  of*  every  species  of  missile.  The  narrow 
space  forbade  them  from  attempting  any  change  of  front,  and 
even  if  this  could  have  been  effected,  their  enemy  was  con- 
cealed and  separated  from  them  by  impassable  bogs.  While, 
therefore,  confused  and  wavering,  they  knew  not  whether 
to  advance  or  to  retreat,  Carmagnuola,  seizing  the  favour- 
able moment,  made  a  signal  for  his  cavalry  to  charge  in 
rear,  and  himself  advanced  upon  the  causeway  in  front.  All 
was  now  rout  and  panic.  Guido  Torello,  accompanied  by 
his  son,  plunged  into  the  marshes,  and  escaped ;  Sforza, 
who  commanded  the  reserve,  had  the  good  fortune  to  regain 
his  camp  ;  Piccinino,  with  almost  incredible  bravery,  cut  his 
way  through  the  very  front  of  his  enemy  ;  but  Malatesta 
himself,  after  an  almost  bloodless  contest  (for  it  has  been 


stated  that  not  one  man  of  his  division  was  killed),  surren- 
dered, with  all  his  standards,  baggage,  stores,  and  treasures, 
and  more  than  8000  prisoners. 

The  campaign  might  now  be  considered  at  an  end,  for 
the  great  numerical  advantage  which  Carmagnuola  obtained 
by  this  decisive  victory  forbade  the  Milanese  from  any  hope 
of  renewing  further  operations  at  present.  But  Venice  had 
yet  to  learn  the  dangers  and  disadvantages  connected  with 
the  employment  of  foreign  mercenaries.  Indifferent  to  the 
result  of  the  quarrel  which  he  is  purchased  to  support,  the 
hired  stranger  chiefly  regards  his  f»lunder  and  his  pay,  and 
personal  safety  is  far  more  his  object  than  success ;  for 
against  him  whose  trade  is  war  the  market  would  be  closed 
by  uninterrupted  conquest.  The  strong  motives  supplied 
by  ancient  rivalry  and  national  pride,  by  patriotism  and  a 
thirst  for  glory,  are  wholly  wanting  to  the  adventurer  who 
draws  his  sword  for  gain  ;  and,  on  the  other  hand,  if  he  be 
opposed  in  battle  to  soldiers  of  the  same  class  with  himself, 
there  may  exist  numerous  ties  between  them  resulting  from 
similarity  of  habits  ;  they  may  have  served  together  as  com- 
rades in  some  former  war,  and  may  have  then  contracted 
rude  but  enduring  bonds  of  military  friendship,  by  which 
they  are  far  more  likely  to  be  influenced  than  by  any  regard 
for  the  interests  of  the  particular  state  to  which  they  are 
pledged,  only  for  the  moment,  by  a  cold  and  heartless  bar- 
gain. Such  on  this  occasion  was  the  position  of  the  vic- 
tors towards  the  vanquished ;  and,  far  from  being  actuated 
by  any  animosity,  they  cherished  a  community  of  feeling 
and  a  sense  of  brotherhood  in  arms  with  those  whom  no- 
thing except  chance  happened  to  range  under  conflicting 
standards.  Many  of  them  recognised  their  captives  as  for- 
mer intimates  ;  all  had  at  some  time  served  under  Carma- 
gnuola, when  he  commanded  for  Milan  ;  and  it  was  not  pos- 
sible that  men  so  circumstanced  should  long  retain  even  an 
appearance  of  hostility.  Accordingly,  in  the  course  of  the 
night  which  succeeded  this  engagement  the  victorious  army 
released  almost  all  its  prisoners,  reserving  only  their  horses, 
arms,  and  other  booty.  On  the  morrow,  when  the  provve- 
ditori  discovered  the  unexpected  abandonment  of  the  chief 
and  most  important  fruits  of  their  success  in  the  field,  they 
remonstrated  loudly  and  earnestly  with  Carmagnuola.  No 
sooner,  however,  had  they  retired,  than  the  general,  par- 
taking of  the  same  spirit  which  actuated  his  followers*  and 


28 


PEACE. 


RENEWAL  OF  WAR. 


29 


f!  I 


pTetenJing  ignorance  on  a  point  with  which  he  was  fully 
acquainted,  inquired  what  number  of  prisoners  still  remained 
unreleased  1  He  was  answered  about  four  hundred :  "  Well 
then,"  he  concluded,  "  if  the  kindness  of  my  soldiers  has 
given  liberty  to  the  others,  I  must  follow  the  ordinary  cus- 
tom, and  dismiss  these  also."* 

Malatesta  and  his  liberated  troops  returned  to  their  camp, 
and  the  Milanese  army  in  a  few  days  presented  numbers 
equally  formidable  with  those  which  it  had  counted  before 
its  late  defeat.     Two  armourers  of  the  capital  offered  to 
furnish  sufficient  fresh  equipments  to   the   soldiers,   and 
money  was  plentifully  at  hand  for  the  purchase  of  horses. 
The  power  of  Filippo-Maria,  therefore,  was  still  unbroken  ; 
and  when  Camiagnuola,  although  strongly  urged  by  the 
pravveditorii  refused  to  advance  upon  Milan,  from  which  he 
was  scarcely  three  days'  march,  the  brilliant  hopes  which 
had  been  founded  upon  his  victory  were  speedily  dissipated, 
and  the  campaign  shortly  afterward  closed  by  his  occupa- 
tion of  some  few  unimportant  posts  on  the  Oglio. 
*  This  war,  however  short,  had  wearied  all  parties  engaged 
in  it  excepting  the  Venetians,  whose  appetite  for  continental 
acquisition  was  hourly  increasing  ;    but  pressed  by  their 
allies  to  negotiate,  they  were  compelled  to  assent. 
14.2S     P^^c^  "^^^  signed  in  the  spring  of  1428,  and  the 
signory,  far  from  manifesting  any  chagrin  or  resent- 
ment at  the  ambi-^uous  conduct  of  Carmagnuola,  received 
him  with  distinguished  honours  on  his  return  to  the  capi- 
tal ;  the  Bucentaur  was  despatched  for  his  conveyance,  and 
he  was  conducted  with  much  splendour  to  a  palace  bestowed 
upon  him  as  a  national  gift  :  3000  ducats  were  added  to  his 
pension  from  the  public  coff*ers,  and  a  land  rent  of  12,000 
more  from  estates  in  the  provinces  which  he  had  conquered. 
Not  many  days  after  his  arrival,  attended  by  his  staff  and 
the  chief  officers  of  government,  he  solemnly  deposited  in 
St.  Mark's,  amid  the  trophies  of  his  victories,  the  standard 
of  the  republic,  which  had  been  committed  to  him  at  the 
opening  of  the  late  war.     Little  now  appeared  wanting  to 
his  prosperity.     Fortune  at  length  seemed  to  have  renewed 
her  former  kindness,  and  he  reposed  confidently  under  the 
favour  and  protection  of  his  adopted  country. 

♦  Ego,  si  coBtervi  vostrorvm  henevolentid  ca  fortuna  contigiti,  stos 
euoque  jubeo  solitd  lege  dimi«i.— Andrea  Bilius,  vi.  ajmd  MuraL  xiJi» 

m. 


JA 


Peace  however  was  but  of  short  duration ;  old  jealousies 
were  revived,  and  fresh  causes  of  dissension  readily  arose 
between  parties  which  had  never  been  cordially  reconciled. 
Hostilities  were  accordingly  renewed  by  all  the  pow- 
ers which  had  coalesced  in  the  former  alliance,  /''^" 
except  the  Duke  of  Savoy  ;  and  Carmagnuola  once  ^*^^* 
more  took  the  command,  with  orders  to  invest  Cremona, 
while  Piccinino  and  Sforza  were  again  his  opponents. 
His  outset  was  unfortunate ;  some  officers  of  the  enemy 
whom  he  endeavoured  to  corrupt  betrayed  him  in  turn, 
and  he  was  entrapped  into  an  ambuscade,  from  which  he 
personally  escaped  not  without  much  difficulty  and  with 
the  loss  of  1600  prisoners.  These,  probably,  were  restored 
to  him,  after  the  fashion  of  Macalo ;  for  within  two  days 
he  advanced  towards  the  Po  with  12,000  horse  and  as  many 
foot,  and  prepared  to  combine  his  operations  with  a  flotilla, 
which  awaited  this  junction  about  three  miles  below  Cre- 
mona. The  Venetian  armament,  commanded  by  Nicole 
Trevisani,  consisted  of  thirty-seven  large  ships  and  above 
one  hundred  small  craft;  to  oppose  which  the  Duke  of 
Milan  had  prepared  a  powerful  force  of  vessels,  inferior  in 
size  but  far  superior  in  number,  under  the  orders  of  Pacino 
Eustachio. 

Meantime  Piccinino  and  Sforza  made  a  demonstration 
in  front  of  Carmagnuola's  lines,  and  by  that  feint  with- 
drew him  from  the  bank  of  the  river.     Pains  were  taken 
on  the  follovving  night  to  deceive  him  by  false  intelligence  ; 
and  so  convinced  was  he  that  dispositions  had  been  made 
to  attack  hun  in  the  morning,  that  he  peremptorily  refused 
the  earnest  application  made  by  Trevisani  for  a  reinforce- 
ment, and  pleaded  that  his  own  position  was  far  too  critical 
to  allow  him  to  detach  any  portion  of  his  army.     Sforza, 
having  succeeded  in  this  stratagem,  threw  himself,  during 
the  same  night,  with  a  large  body  of  picked  men,  «    „, 
into  Eustachio'a  ships;    and  at  the  dawn  of  day,  ^^^'-"• 
when  Carmagnuola  displayed  his  Une  and  awaited  battle, 
no  force  confronted  him  except  a  few  light  troops,  which, 
as  he  advanced,  fell  back  upon  their  main  body,  now  shel- 
tered under  the  guns  of  Cremona. 

Too  late  discovering  his  error,  Carmagnuola  hastened 
back  to  the  Po,  in  order  to  render  that  assistance  to  Trevi- 
sani which  he  now  perceived  to  be  so  needful.     But  the 

C2 


30 


THE  VENETIAN  FLOTILLA  DESTROYED. 


flotillas  were  already  engaged,  and  the  Milanese,  before 
commencing  their  attack,  having  cautiously  dropped  down 
on  the  left  bank  of  the  river,  had  succeeded  m  cutting  oil 
all  communication  between  the  land-force  of  the  Venetians 
and  their  ships,  which  had  been  driven  to  the  opposite  shore. 
The  battle  raged  with  unwonted  fury,  for  the  confined  tract 
within  which  the  combatants  were  pent  was  more  fitted 
for  a  display  of  personal  strength  and  valour  than  of  nau- 
tical skill.     The  vessels  grappled  with  each  other,   and 
their  crews,  fighting  as  on  one  continued  platform,  with 
little  employment  of  their  artillery,  pressed  on,  hand  to 
hand,  by  boarding;  a  mode  of  attack  in  which  the  iron- 
clad soldiers  by  whom  the  Milanese  galleys  were  pnnci- 
pally  manned,  possessed  incalculable  advantage  over  the 
exposed  and  lightly  armed  Venetian  mariners.      Carma- 
gnuola,  meantime,  forced  to  remain  an  inactive  spectator  on 
his  own  bank,  within  speaking  distance  of  his  comrades, 
yet  wholly  unable  to  employ   for  their  assistance  those 
overwhelming  numbers  with  which  he  lined  the  river,*  had 
the  mortification  of  seeing  ship  after  ship  submit  to  the 
enemy.     Trevisani  and  many  of  his  captains  took  to  their 
boats  and  escaped ;  twenty-eight  galleys,  including  that  of 
the  admiral  himself,  and  forty-two  transports,  were  cap- 
tured ;  three  thousand  men  were  killed  ;  an  immense  booty 
(among  which  Billiiis  mentions  so  large  a  store  of  Cretan 
wine  as  enriched  all  the  Paduan  cities)  fell  into  the  hands 
of  the  enemy,  and  the  loss  to  Venice,  thus  signally  worsted 
on  her  own  peculiar  element,  was  estimated  at  sixty  thou- 
sand florins.  ,  •  ,   -^  •    i 

A  period  of  inaction  on  both  sides,  for  which  it  is  by  no 
means  easy  to  account,  succeeded  this  great  disaster.  The 
generals  of  Filippo-Maria  contented  themselves  with  rava- 
ging the  territories  of  Montserrat ;  and  Carmagnuola,  as  if 
palsied  or  stupified,  made  no  attempt  to  redeem  his  tarnished 
honour.  Even  when  victory  seemed  to  proffer  herself  to 
his  embrace,  he  sUghted  the  invitation ;  and  dispirited  by 

*  Stabant  orantes  primi  transmittere  cursum, 
Taidebantque  manus  ripas  ulterions  amore.— ^nbid,  vi.  6\i. 
Neither  accurately  nor  even  grammatically  rendered  by  Dryden ;    al- 
tiiough  perhaps  his  words  are  more  to  our  purpose  than  the  ongmal ; 

the  shivering  army  stands, 

AriJ  press  for  passage  with  extended  hands. 


AMBIGUOUS   CONDUCT   OF  CARMAGNUOLA.        31 

his  late  reverses,  dissatisfied  with  the  service  in  which  he 
was  employed,  deprived  of  earlier  vigcAir,  or  perhaps  (for 
it  is  impossible  but  that  such  a  surmise  must  cross  even  the 
least  suspicious  mind)  entangled  by  some  intrigue  with  his 
former  master,  he  turned  away  from  favourable  chances  of 
success.  One  of  his  otiicers,  in  the  conmiand  of  a  recon- 
noitring detachment,  succeeded  by  a  bold  attempt  in  estab- 
lishing himself  on  an  ill-guarded  part  of  the  very  rampart 
of  Cremona,  the  main  object  of  the  campaign.  He  in- 
stantly communicated  to  his  general  the  important  advan- 
tage which  he  had  secured,  and  gallantly  maintained  his 
conquest  for  two  days.  Nevertheless  Carmagnuola  refused 
to  traverse  the  short  space  which  separated  him  from  the 
city ;  raised  a  thousand  pretexts  against  such  a  move- 
ment; urged  the  probability  of  stratagem  on  the  part  of 
the  enemy ;  and  finally,  almost  under  his  own  eyes,  and 
when  the  fall  of  Cremona  seemed  but  to  depend  upon  a 
single  word,  permitted  the  handful  of  brave  men  who  had 
won  for  him  this  golden  opportunity  to  be  overwhelmed 
and  cut  to  pieces. 

Little  more  than  this  last  great  failure  in  duty  was  want- 
ing to  seal  the  fate  of  Carmagnuola,  and  that  little  was 
soon  afterward  supplied    by  his  permitting  the  enemy  to 
occupy  some  advantageous  posts  on  the  very  borders  of  the 
Lagunc^  which  he  might  easily  have  maintained.     Even  if 
the  senate  absolved  him  from  any  charge  of  treachery,  to 
which  he  had  but  too  obviously  exposed  himself,  he  had 
ceased  to  conquer,  and  liis  removal  therefore  was  most 
desirable.      The  course  which  they  adopted  was  in   all 
points  consistent  with  their  ordinary  dark  policy,  and  it  is 
well  explained  by  Machiavelli.     "  Perceiving  that  Carma- 
gnuola," says  the  acute  author  of  the  Prenape,  "  had  be- 
come cold  in  their  service,  they  yet  neither  wished  nor 
dared  to  dismiss  him,  from  a  fear  of  losing  that  which  he 
had  acquired  for  them ;  for  their  men  sccurityy  thcreforty 
they  were  compelled  to  put  him  to  deaths*     Yet  it  may  be 
believed,   that  however  unscrupulous   in  their  state  craft 
were  the  rulers  of  Venice,  they  were,  in  this  instance,  ac- 
tuated by  more  powerful  motives  than  those  of  long-sighted 
precaution ;  and  that  they  inflicted  punishment  for  ofl'ence« 

*  Cap.  xii. 


Y 


32 


THE  VENETIANS  RESOLVE 


UPON  carmagnuola's  death. 


33 


already  committed,  as  well  as  guarded  against  the  possibility 
of  future  commission.     The  conduct  of  their  general  had 
Ion  a  been  an  object  of  discussion,  for  it  is  recorded,  that 
whHe  residing  in  Venice,  during  the  short  interval  of  peace, 
and  laden  daily  with  new  honours,  as  he  one  morning  at- 
tended the  levee  in  the  ducal  palace,  he  found  the  prince 
but  just  returning  from  a  council  which  had  sat  m  debate 
all  ni'Tht.     «  Shall  I  offer  good  morrow  or  good  even  { 
was  the  sportive  and  unsuspecting  inquiry  of  the  soldier. 
"  Our  consultation  has  been  indeed  protracted,    replied  the 
doffe  with  a  gracious  smile,  "  and  nothing  has  more  fre- 
quently occurred  in  it  than  the  mention  of-^your  name. 
Then,  as  if  recollecting  that  he  had  outstepped  the  bounds 
of  caution,  he  artfully  diverted  the  conversation  to  other 
topics.     It  is  not  possible  to  reject  the  great  mass  of  con- 
current testimony  which  assures  us  that  the  precise  mea- 
sures which  the  government  ultimately  adopted  were  decided 
upon  fully  eight  months  before  their  execution  ;  and  it  ap- 
pears a  matter  of  no  small  pride,  not  only  to  the  pensioned 
historian  Sabellico,  but  even  to  the  exalted  and  mdependenl 
spirit  of  Paolo  Sarpi,  that  although  the  secret  resolutior 
was  well  known  during  that  long  period,  to  at  least  three 
hundred  persons,  who  had  themselves  assisted  in  framing 
it,— many  of  them  intimately  and  fiimiliarly  acquainted 
with  their   intended  victim,   some   oppressed  by  poverty 
which  they  might  have  exchanged  for  immediate  affluence 
by  a  disclosure,— yet  not  one  whisper  was  breathed  from  n 
Binale  lip  which  could,  in  the  slightest  degree,  compromise 
the" mysterious  design  of  the  senate.*      The  fact  perhaps 
speaks  quite  as  strongly  for  the  terror  inspired  by  the 
Venetian  government  as  for  the  fidelity  of  its  agents. 
The  senate  concealed  their  determination  till  the  blow 
could  be  struck  without  a  chance  of  fadure  ;  and  it 
\  ?:     was  not  until  the  following  spring  that  Carmagnuola 
^^^^'    received  a  summons  to  Venice,  under  pretexts  of 
hi^h  respect  and  consideration  which  might  have  deceived 
th?  most  veteran  intriguer.     Sanuto,  indeed,  may  perhaps 
seem  to  imply,  and  if  he  does  so  it  is  with  the  most  un- 
flinching gravity,  that  some  misgiving  might  have  crossed 
the  general's  mind  if  he  had  paid  due  attention  to  the  ill- 
«  Sabellico,  Dec.  iil  1.    P.  Justinianl,  vii.    P.  Sarpi,  Opmiont  too- 
cante  al  Governo  ddla  Rep.  Yen.  32. 


favoured  countenance  of  the  pale  and  cadaverous  secretary 
of  the  chancellor  who  bore  the  message  :*  but,  with  this 
one  equivocal  exception,  no  pains  were  spared  to  lull  sus- 
picion. Negotiations  for  peace  were  stated  to  have  com- 
menced, ambassadors  from  the  chief  belligerents  were  as- 
sembled at  Piacenza,  and  it  was  to  assist  the  great  council 
in  its  deliberations  upon  the  proposals  submitted  to  it,  that 
the  presence  of  Carmairnuola  was  required  in  the  capital. 
Every  precaution  which  the  Council  of  Ten  adopted  in  order 
to  secure  his  person,  from  the  first  moment  after  he  left  the 
camp,  was  so  astutely  contrived,  that  he  received  it  with 
satisfaction  as  a  token  of  more  than  ordinary  respect ;  and 
although  he  remarked  the  unusual  caresses  which  were 
lavished  on  him,  probably  he  did  not  feel,  certainly  he  did 
not  express,  any  suspicion  as  to  the  motives  in  which  they 
originated. t  The  Lord  of  Mantua  never  quitted  his  side; 
on  setting  foot  hi  the  territory  of  Vicenza,  the  commandant 
met  him  at  the  head  of  a  considerable  body  of  troops,  and 
escorted  him  to  the  opposite  frontier  ;  a  like  guard  of 
honour,  as  he  beheved  it  to  be,  awaited  him  at  Padua  ; 
where  the  governor,  Contarini,  insisted  that  he  should  par- 
take his  bed,  a  compliment  agreeable  to  the  manners  of  the 
times,  and,  in  this  instance,  well  answering  the  double 
purpose  for  which  it  was  designed.  When  he  embarked  on 
the  Lagime,  to  the  borders  of  which  Contarini  attended 
him,  he  found  in  waiting  the  Signori  di  Nolle  (certain 
police  magistrates)  with  their  ofllicers ;  and  at  the  entrance 
of  the  capital,  eight  nobles,  who  were  posted  to  receive  him, 
entreated  that,  instead  of  proceeding  immediately  to  his  own 
palace,  he  would  accompany  them,  in  the  first  instance,  to 
that  of  the  doge.  On  entering  the  prince's  mansion,  its 
gates  were  closed,  all  strangers  were  excluded,  and  the 
count's  suite  was  dismissed,  with  an  intimation  that  their 
master  was  to  be  entertained  with  a  banquet  by  the  Doge 
Foscari.  While  Carmagnuola,  awaiting  his  audience,  re- 
mained in  conversation  with  the  members  of  the  Collegio^ 
the  doge  excused  himself  till  the  following  morning,  on  a 

*  Fu  mandato  Giovanni  (flmpero,  J^otaio  delta  Ckincellaria,  il  quaie 
ora  difaecta  pallidas  morfo.— Sanuto,  ap.  Murat.  xxii.  1027. 

t  Onde  al  detto  Conte  molto  parv*  do  nuovo,  estendoffli  fntte  tanfe 
carezze  oltre  quello  che  soleva  rssergli  fatio  quando  d-lP  altre  volte 
veviva  a  Venezia.  Ma  pure  nan  dine  alcuna  co«a.— SanUto,  ap.  Mtj- 
rat.  xxii.  1027. 


,^^    t'f^ji.^i>4S8ii,.^»dte5t,.,j^.3iWBi' ■ 


/ 


34 


CARMAGNUOLA    IS    ARRESTED, 


TORTURED,   AND    EXECUTED. 


35 


plea  of  indisposition.  As  it  grew  later,  the  unsuspecting 
prisoner  took  his  leave,  and  the  attendant  nobles,  seeuungly 
m  order  to  pay  yet  further  respect  to  their  illustrious  visiter, 
accompanied  him  to  the  palace  court.  There,  as  he  took 
the  ordinary  path  to  the  gates,  one  of  them  requested  hiiii 
to  pass  over  to  the  other  side,  towards  the  prisons  :  "  1  hat 
is  not  my  way,"  was  his  remark ;  and  he  was  signihcant  y 
answered,  «  It  is  your  way  !"  As  he  crossed  the  threshold 
of  the  dunaeon,  the  fatal  truth  flashed  upon  him,  and  he 
exclaimed,  with  a  deep  sigh,  "I  see  well  enough  that  I  am 
a  dead  man ;"  and,  in  reply  to  some  consolation  offered  by 
his  companions,  he  added  words  fully  expressive  of  his 
conviction  that  life  was  forfeited.*  For  three  days  he  re- 
fused all  sustenance.  At  their  expiration,  when  he  was 
led  by  niaht,  to  the  chamber  of  torture,  and  stripped  lor 
the  question,  an  arm,  formerly  broken  by  a  wound  received 
in  the  service  of  his  judges,  prevented  the  executioners 
from  lifting  him  to  the  height  requisite  to  give  full  effect  to 
the  inhuman  application  of  the  strappado.  His  feet,  there- 
fore, were  brought  to  the  stoves  ;  and  it  was  reported  that 
ample  confession  of  treachery  was  speedily  wrung  from 
him  by  the  acuteness  of  his  sufferings,  and  confirmed  by 
the  production  of  letters  under  his  own  hand,  and  by  the 
testimony  of  agents  whom  he  had  employed.  But  the 
mysteries  of  the  Council  of  Ten  were  impenetrable  ;  and  all 
that  can  be  stated  with  certainty  of  his  trial,  if  such  it  may 
be  called,  are  the  terms  of  his  accusation ;  namely,  that  he 
was  in  compact  with  Filippo-Maria  to  refuse  assistance  to 
Trevisani,  and  not  to  take  Cremona.  He  lingered  m  prison 
for  nearly  three  weeks  after  this  examination,  and  was  then 
conducted,  after  vespers,  on  the  5th  of  May,  to  the  Two 
Columns.  Either  to  prevent  him  from  exciting  pity  by  an 
enumeration  of  his  former  great  deeds,  or  from  appealing 
aaainst  a  punishment  inflicted  without  due  evidence  of  guilt, 
hfs  mouth  was  carefully  gagged  ;  and  Sanuto,  who  has  mi- 
nutely recorded  the  particulars  of  his  last  moments,  thus 
describes  the  dress  in  which  he  appeared  upon  the  scaffold: 
He  was  clad  in  scarlet  hose,  a  cap  of  velvet  from  his  own 
native  town,  a  crimson  mantle,  and  a  scarlet  vest  with  the 


*  Vedo  btm  ch'  io  son  morto  .  . 
Mono  da  prendere.—SdLUUio,  1028. 
verbial. 


.  Uccelli  che  von  sono  da  lasciare,  non 
The  latter  words  most  likely  are  pro 


sleeves  tied  behind  his  back.  It  was  not  till  the  third 
stroke  that  his  head  was  severed  from  his  body  ;  and  his 
remains  were  then  buried  by  torch-light  in  the  church  of 
San  Francesco  della  Vigna.  In  later  days  they  were  trans- 
ferred to  Sta.  Maria  dei  Frari,  where,  at  the  descent  into 
the  cloisters,  his  wooden  coffin  was  shown  not  many  years 
since,  perhaps  may  still  be  shown,  covered  with  a  black 
velvet  pall,  upon  which  was  placed  a  scull.* 

To  decide  upon  the  justice  of  Carmagnuola's  doom, 
lighted  only  by  that  uncertain  glimmering  which  the  rulers 
of  Venice  permitted  to  be  thrown  upon  their  judicial  trans- 
actions, was  scarcely  possible  even  at  the  time  of  its  execu- 
tion ;  and  the  attempt  at  the  present  day  must  be  worse 
than  hopeless.     Every  generous  feeling  of  our  nature  is 
arrayed  against  the  base  and  insidious  artifices  employed  to 
entrap  him,  and  the  invisible  processes  used  in  his  condem- 
nation ;  and  profound  interest  cannot  fail  to  be  excited  by 
the  ignominious,  even  if  merited,  death  of  one  who  had  be- 
fore deserved  and  obtained  so  rich  a  prize  of  glory.     But  it 
should  be  remembered,  that  in  the  instance  of  Carmagnuola, 
some  semblance  at  least  of  civil  proceeding  was  maintained, 
and  that  he  was  reserved  for  the  sword  of  the  law  ;  while 
in  after-times,  another,  and  in  this  instance  a  less  scrupu- 
lous government,  despatched  Wallenstein,  who  had  equally 
outgrown  control,  by  the  hand  of  an  assassin.     Each  of 
these  great  captains  lived  in  the  hearts  of  his  soldiers,  and 
the  extenuating  plea  in  each  case  therefore  would  be,  that, 
although  proscribed,  he  was  impregnable  in  his  own  camp. 
It  may  be  added  that  many  authorities  near  the  times  of 
Carmagnuola,  and  such  indeed  as  were  uninfluenced  by 
any  fear  of  Venice,  more  than  imply  a  belief  that  he  had 
earned  his  fate.t     In  our  own  days  his  innocence  has  been 
advocatc-d  by  a  writer  of  distinguished  genius;  but  in  the 
tragedy  of  Manzoni  the  spirit  of  the  drama  demanded  that 
the  hero  should  be  represented  guiltless  ;  and  poets  more- 
over are  not  always  the  most  faithful  asserters  of  veritable 

*  Forestifirn  iVumitiato,  212. 

t  Poggio  Braccioliiii  represents  him  as  Philippi  auvrrsm  fortunes 
miscrtu^.-{Hf.st.  Flvrnit.  vi.  arnd  Mural,  xx.  351.)  And  again,  Vnir- 
tommrnorKspert(Bsi(snfuleprolapatis.—{\h.TtQ.)—B\\\\u^,\nTf:coviX\X\n<r 
his  last  campaign,  states  that  he  was  believed  r«  (4  re  vctens  amiciUoB 
munoniii  ilnhiio  opcram  ;'/(^•^/(^v^^..— (105.) 


/ 


36 


MANZONIS  TRAGEDY. 


PEACE  OF  FERRARA. 


37 


histor}\  If,  however,  our  Milanese  contemporary  has  at  all 
deviated  from  fact  in  the  conception  of  his  leading  charac- 
ter, he  has  more  than  compensated  for  such  an  exercise  of 
poetical  privilege,  by  the  bold,  masterly,  and  correct  portrait 
which  he  has  placed  before  our  eyes  of  the  miseries  endured 
by  Italy  during  the  existence  of  the  condottten.  It  would 
indeed  be  difficult  to  select  any  passage  from  the  whole 
ran.Te  of  poetry  in  which  truth  is  more  closely  intertwined 
with  imagination,  than  in  that  magnificent  chorus  by  which 
Manzoni  has  concluded  the  second  act  of  II  Conte  di 
Carmagnuola.* 

*  S'  ode  a  destra  uno  squillo  di  tromba,  'Srd 


CHAPTER  XII. 
from  a.  d.  1432  TO  A.  D.  1450. 

Peace  of  Ferrara — Rash  Enterprise  and  Death  of  Marsilio  da  Carrara- 
War  renewed  with  Milan— Origin  of  the  Family  of  Sforza— Treachery 
of  the  Dukeof  Mantua— Brilliant  Retreat  of  Ga«a  Melata— Francesco 
Sforza  assumes  the  Connnaiid  of  the  Venetian  Army— Siege  of  Brescia 
— Transport  of  a  Flotilla  overland  to  the  Lagodi  Garda— Battle  of  Tenna 
— Singular  Escape  of  Picclnino — Sforza  rejects  Overtures  irom  the 
Dukeof  Milan— Sforza  surrounded  at  Martenengo — Terms  unexpect- 
edly offered  by  the  Duke  of  Milan— Peace  of  Capriana— Marriage  of 
Sforza  with  the  Princess  Bianca — Death  of  Filippo- Maria  Visconti — 
His  Character— Milan  declares  herself  a  free  Republic — Engages  Sforza 
as  her  General— Battle  of  Caravaggio — Noble  Forbearance  of  Sforxa — 
He  makes  Peace  with  Venice — Treachery  of  the  Venetians — Sforza 
blockades  Milan— Its  Surrender — He  assumes  the  Duoal  Crown. 


DOGE. 

Francesco  Foscari. 


Within  twelve  months  from  the  execution  of  Carma- 
gnuola, the  war  with  Milan,  which  had  languished  through 
another  campaign,  was  terminated  by  a  peace  so  framed  as 
to  leave  ample  grounds  for  a  renewal  of  hostilities,  when- 
ever either  party  had  sufficiently  profited  by  its  breathing 
time.  Even  during  the  short  interval  of  apparent  friend- 
ship which  succeeded,  Filippo-Maxia  found  occasion  to  em- 
barrass "Venice  ;  and  he  induced  the  last  survivor  of  the  ill- 
fated  lords  of  Padua  to  make  a  fruitless  attempt  for  the 
recovery  of  his  patrimony,  by  false  promises  of  assistance 
from  himself,  and  by  equally  false  representations  of  a  pow- 
erful armament  to  be  furnished  in  his  behalf  by  the  Vero- 
nese and  Vicentines.  During  thirty  years,  Marsilio,  the 
only  remaining  son  of  Francesco  da  Carrara,  had  escaped 
the  consequences  of  his  proscription  by  Venice,  in  tranquil 
and  contented  exile ;  and  he  was  now  allured  from  the  safe 
asylum  which  Germany  had  afforded  him,  to  be  sacrificed 
as  a  victim  to  the  intrigues  of  the  Duke  of  Milan.     Encour- 

VoL.  II.— D 


d8 


EXECUTION  OF  MARSILIO  DA  CARRARA. 


GIACOMUZIO    SFORZA. 


39 


aged  by  an  assurance  that  his  partisans  within  his  ancient  ^ 
capital  waited  but  for  his  appearance  to  proclaim  him  their 
sovereign,  he  set  out  on  this  rash  and  hazardous  enterprise, 
disguised  as  a  merchant,  and  accompanied  by  no  more  than 
ten  followers.  While  on  his  route  through  the  mountains 
of  Verona,  he  was  denounced  to  the  Council  of  Ten,  arrested 
by  their  agents,  and  conveyed  to  Padua.  Thence,  having 
first  been  exhibited  in  chains  to  the  popular  gaze,  through 
the  most  open  parts  of  the  city,  in  order  that  his  person 
might  be  fully  recognised,  he  was  transferred  to  Venice. 
No  compassion  was  likely  to  await  him  in  the  slaughter- 
house of  his  father  and  his  brothers,  and,  after  an  examina- 
tion of  four  hours  in  the  chamber  of  torture,  he  was  ad- 
judged to  the  scaffold. 

The  confessions  of  that  unhappy  prince  and  of  his  com- 
panions in  misfortune  so  clearly  evinced  the  perfidy  of 
Filippo-Maria,  that  war,  as  a  necessary  result,  was  speedily 
declared  against  him :  and  the  signory,  anxious  to  engage 
in  their  service  the  most  consummate  military  talent  of  the 
time,  offered  the  command  of  their  army  to  Francesco 
Sforza.  Of  that  great  man  we  have  hitherto  spoken  only 
as  of  a  brave  and  successful  condotticrc  ;  but  the  distin- 
guished character  which  he  assumed  in  the  complicated 
events  upon  which  we  are  about  to  enter,  and  the  high  ele- 
vation to  which  he  ultimately  won  his  way  as  the  founder 
of  a  race  of  princes,  demand  a  larger  notice  both  of  his  ori- 
gin and  his  progress.  His  father,  Giacomuzio  d'Attenduli, 
was  bom  at  Cotignola,  a  petty  town  of  Romagna,  between 
Imolo  and  Faenza,  of  a  family  which  has  been  traced  to 
the  royal  blood  of  Dacia  :  and  the  Emperor  Robert  is  said 
to  have  acknowledged  the  line  of  those  princes  in  the  per- 
son of  Giacomuzio,  at  the  same  time  at  which,  in  reward 
for  his  distinguished  courage,  he  gave  him  an  honourable 
augmentation  of  his  armorial  bearings,  and  placed  the 
orange-branch  of  the  Attenduli  in  the  left  paw  of  a  lion,  ele- 
vating his  right  in  an  attitude  of  menace.*  Whether  this 
family  preserved  its  opulence  is  doubted  ;  but  that  agricul- 
ture was  its  chief  employment  during  the  early  years  of 
Giacomuzio's  life  is  ascertained  by  a  tradition  preserved 
and  fondly  cherished  by  his  descendants  in  their  subse- 

*  Laurent.  Bonincwntrii,  Annal.  apvd  Murat.  xxi.  18. 


quent  great  prosperity.     Giacomuzio,  they  said,  even  in  his 
boyhood,  felt  a  strong  passion  for  arms,  and,  wearied  by  the 
daily  and  unvaried  toijs  of  husbandry  to  which  he  was  con- 
demned, he  secretly  resolved  to  abandon  them  for  the  profes- 
sion which  he  coveted.     While  meditating  on  his  future  pur- 
suits and  chances,  the  impatient  boy  caught  up  a  mattock  with 
which  he  had  been  digging,  and  threw  it  into  an  oak-tree  hard 
by ;  remembering,  as  Paulus  Jovius  (from  whom  we  derive 
these  particulars,  but  who  does  not  appear  to  attach  much 
credit  to  them)  would  persuade  us,  that  the  oak  was  conse- 
crated to  the  god  of  war,  and  therefore  was  well  fitted  to 
afford  a  martial  augury.     If  the  mattock  should  fall  to  the 
ground,  Giacomuzio  determined  to  continue  his  rustic  la- 
bours ;  if  it  should  lodge  in  the  branches,  he  would  forth- 
with become  a  soldier.     It  lodged,  as  he  doubtless  wished 
and  took  good  care  that  it  should  do  ;  and,  although  no 
more  than  twelve  years  of  age  at  the  time  of  this  divination, 
the  young  adventurer,  easily  satisfying  himself  that  he  was 
now  under  the  special  guidance  of  Providence,  quitted  hi« 
father's  house  clandestinely,  with  the  intention  of  engaging 
himself  to  Alberic  di  Barbiano,  the  chief  leader  of  condot- 
tieri  at  the  time.     "  To  that  mattock  of  Giacomuzio,"  said 
his  grandson,  when  displaying  the  magnificence  of  his  pal- 
ace to  the  historian,  "do  I  owe  all  these  treasures."*     On 
his  way  to  Alberic's  quarters,  the  youth  was  forcibly  de- 
tained by  a  soldier  belonging  to  the  commandant  of  the 
papal  cavalry,  from  which  officer  he  received  instructions 
during  four  years. t     Passing  then  to  the  service  of  Count 
Alberic,  he  entered  in  the  very  lowest  grade,  and  officiated 
as  groom  and  horseboy  J  to  the  camp :  yet,  even  while  en- 
gaged in  those  mean  employments,  his  high  spirit  and 
great  bodily  strength  won  distinction  among  his  comrades, 
from  whom  he  frequently  obtained  by  violence  more  than 
his  share  of  booty.     In  a  squabble  upon  one  of  those  occa- 
sions, appeal  was  made  to  the  commander  himself,  who 
decided  against  Attenduli,  and,  to  his  surprise,  was  met 

*  We  give  this  story  as  we  find  it  in  the  Vita  Magni  Sforti(B,  c.  2,  by 
Paulus  Jovius.  It  is  told  with  a  slight  variation,  for  which  we  hftv- 
not  been  able  to  trace  equally  good  authority,  both  by  M,  de  Sismondi 
and  Daru. 

t  BonincontriUK,  39. 

i  Lixa—saccvmanno.  Benvenuto  di  Saji  Georgio,  Hist.  Montiefer- 
rati,  apud  Murat.  xxiji.  715. 


40 


DEATH  OF  GIACOMUZIO  SFORZA. 


by  a  bold  remonstrance.  «  By  my  troth,"  replied  Count 
Alberic,  not  displeased  with  the  freedom  of  the  answer, 
"  this  boy,  by-and-by,  will  not  spare  ourselves.  As  you 
gain  every  thing  by  force,  for  the  future  you  must  be  called 
Sforza^  The  name,  bestowed  in  jest,  superseded  that  of 
his  family,  and  is  the  one  by  which  both  himself  and  his 
posterity  are  known  in  history.* 

It  is  not  our  purpose  to  follow  the  elder  Sforza  minutely  in 
his  brilliant  career.  The  fortunes  of  a  condottiere  depended 
largely  upon  his  personal  valour,  and,  with  that  quality,  as 
well  as  with  an  active  and  penetrating  intellect,  the  peasant 
of  Cotignola  was  eminently  gifted.  In  the  service  of  Na- 
ples, he  acquired  not  only  reputation,  but  wealth  and  sub- 
stantial power ;  and  not  long  before  his  death  he  was  in- 
vested with  the  high  dignity  of  grand  constable  of  that 
kingdom,  ranked  as  a  feudatory  lord  by  the  possession  of 
rich  fiefs  both  in  the  patrimony  of  St.  Peter  and  of  Sienna, 
and  was  created  count  of  his  native  village  by  Pope  John 
XXIII.,  as  a  compensation  for  a  debt  of  14,000  ducats. 
The  free  bands  aLso  which  he  headed  were  distinguished 
from  others  of  their  class,  not  less  by  their  strict  discipline 
than  by  their  unlimited  devotion  to  the  chief  who  had 
raised  and  maintained  them.  They  were  bound  to  hun, 
partly  by  individual  attachment,  which  he  took  sedulous 
pams  to  cultivate  by  affability,  attention  to  their  wants,  and 
generous  largesses  ;  and  partly  by  the  spirit  of  clanship, 
if  we  may  so  say,  with  which  the  numerous  relations  and 
connexions  whom  he  had  enlisted  in  his  ranks  were  deeply 
imbued.  The  aggrandizement  of  their  general  was  the 
mam  object  of  desire  among  these  faithful  adherents,  and, 
with  such  followers  at  his  command,  scarcely  any  enterprise 
appeared  too  daring  for  the  ambition  of  their  leader.  But 
the  jealousy  of  a  rival  adventurer,  Braccio  di  Montone,  re- 
tarded the  great  projects  which  Sforza  had,  no  doubt,  long 
meditated  ;  and  an  untimely  death,  before  they  were  ma- 
tured, left  their  completion  to  be  achieved  by  his  equally 
brave  and  still  more  fortunate  son.  The  elder  Sforza  was 
drowned,  while  crossing  the  Pescara,  in  an  unavailin  a  attempt 
to  rescue  one  of  his  pages  from  a  similar  fate.  Moved  by 
^e  cnes  of  the  unhappy  youth,  he  turned  his  horse  from  a 
ford  into  deep  water,  where  the  animal  lost  his  footing,  and, 

*  Bonlncontrius,  51. 


DISCREET    CONDUCT   OF   FRANCESCO   SFORZA.    41 

liaving  thrown  his  rider,  gained  the  land.  Sforza  himself, 
unable  to  swim  from  the  oppressive  weight  of  his  armour, 
and  too  far  from  the  bank  to  receive  assistance,  sank  beneath 
the  flood.  Twice  he  rose  to  the  surface,  clasping 
his  gauntleted  hands  as  in  despair,  and  was  then  i/oa' 
swept  away  by  the  torrent,  and  disappeared  for  ever. 

Francesco  Sforza,  at  the  time  of  that  calamity,  had  not 
yet  attained  his  four-and-twentieth  year,  but  he  had  already 
shown  much  promise  of  great  future  eminence.     He  was 
the  eldest,  and,  although  illegitimate,  the  favourite  son  of  his 
father  ;  who  diligently  trained  him  to  military  exercises  by 
his  own  side,  and  saw  him,  in  his  first  essay  of  arms, 
give  proofs  of  valour  which  might  have  done  credit     1/17* 
to  a  veteran  captain.     Soon  afterward,  he  espoused 
one  of  the  richest  widows  in  Italy,   Polissena   RufTa,  a 
daughter  of  the  Count  of  Montalto,  who  brought  that  town 
and  other  large  possessions  in  Calabria  as  her  dower.     The 
three  precepts  which  the  youthful  bridegroom  received  from 
his  father,  when  he  quitted  the  paternal  roof  to  enter  upon 
his  own  lordships,  were,  1st,  To  treat  his  vassals  with  gen- 
tleness ;  2dly,  Never  to  strike  a  domestic,  or,  if  he  did  so, 
immediately  aflerward  to  dismiss  him ;  and  lastly,  almost 
as  if  with  some  foresight  of  the  destiny  which  awaited  him- 
self, never  to  mount  a  restiff  horse,  and  on  all  occasions  to 
look  particularly  to  his  shoes  ;  "  from  casting  which,"  said 
the  experienced  soldier,  "  I  have  more  than  once  been  sorely 
perilled  in  the  field."* 

No  situation  could  require  greater  promptitude  and 
sounder  judgment  than  that  in  which  Francesco  Sforza 
stood  at  the  moment  of  his  father's  death.  His  free  troops 
were  not  only  the  most  important  portion  of  his  heritage, 
but  they  were,  indeed,  its  sole  guarantee  ;  for  through  them 
alone  could  he  hope  to  prevent  the  resumption  of  the  fiefs 
held  under  the  Neapolitan  crown  by  the  court  which  had 
bestowed  them  far  more  in  expectation  of  future  services 
than  as  a  reward  for  the  past.  Yet  the  charm  which  bound 
together  and  restrained  the  fierce,  rude,  and  licentious 
spirits  composing  his  army,  was  broken  and  dissolved  with 
the  last  breath  of  his  deceased  father ;  and  indeed,  not  long 
before  the  elder  Sforza's  death,  some  symptoms  of  dis- 

*  Paulus  Jovius,  ut  sup.  c  77.    Bonincontrius,  lU  sup.  110. 

D2 


'i 


'i 


V  \ 


48         GREAT    POWER    OF    FRANCESCO    SFORZA. 

affection  from  the  son  had  been  plainly  manifested.     With 
consummate  skill,  however,  Francesco  not  only  assumed  the 
chief  command,  although  he  was  the  youngest  leader  in  the 
band,  but  he  continued  to  retain  the  obedience  and  to  pre- 
serve the  discipline  of  his  followers,  by  employing  them  in 
unremitted  service,  till  he  had  secured  their  willing  affec- 
tions, and  established  himself  in  as  uncontrolled  a  mastery 
as  that  which  had  been  possessed  by  his  father.     Thus 
strengthened,  he  commanded  the  favour  of  Naples  ;  and, 
having  received  full  confirmation  in  his  lordships,  he  passed, 
as  we  have  already  seen,  with  so  much  distinction  to  him- 
self and  so  much  advantage  to  the  prince  who  engaged 
A.  D.       ^l"?'  ^"^°  ^^°  service  of  jMilan.     The  support  of 
1433.      f'i'Jppo-Maria  enabled  him,  at  the  close  of  the  last 
war  with  Venice,  to  wrest  the  march  of  Ancona,  by 
force  of  arms,  from  Eugenius  IV. ;  and  the  subsequent 
necessities  of  that   pontiff  yielded  to  him  a  recognition 
of  his  doubtful  rights,  together  with  the  title  of  marquis  and 
the  additional  high  dignity  of  Gonfalonicrc  of  the  church. 
Eugenius,  it  is  true,  afterward  regretted  this  surrender,  and 
endeavoured  to  recover  his  dominion  by  the  assassination 
of  its  new  sovereign  ;  but  a  seasonable  disclosure  of  the 
plot,  on  the  night  before  its  intended  execution,  reserved 
Sforza  for  yet  greater  acquisitions.     His  ultimate  views  had 
lona  been  directed  to  the  throne  of  Milan  ;  a  brilliant  object, 
which  might  probably  be  attnined,  could  he,  now  a  widower, 
win  the  hand  of  Bianca,  the  iliegithnate  daughter  of  Filippo- 
Maria,  who  was  without  male  issue.     Those  nuptials  were 
indeed  promised  him  by  Visconti ;  but  that  astute  and  wily 
prince  was  too  fully  acquainted  with  the  value  of  the  im- 
portant prize  which  he  had  to  bestow,  not  to  make  it  avail- 
able in  every  new  political  intrigue  ;  and  each  aspirant  who 
could  assist  any  favourite  project  of  the  moment,  during 
that   moment  received  his  turn  of  assurance  that  Bianca 
should  be  his  reward.     The  policy  of  Sforza,  therefore,  who 
was  intimately  acquainted  with  the  dissimulation,  the  perfidy, 
ami  the  inconstant  temper  of  Filippo-Maria,  and  who  per- 
ceived that  fear  alone  could  obtain  the  fulfilment  of  this  lone- 
promised  and  perpetually  eluded  alliance,  was  to  render 
himself  necessary  to  his  present  master's  ambition  ;  and, 
A.  D.       ^f.c«^^'^gly'  o»  the  renewal  of  the   war  between 
1436.      Y^^sconti  and  Florence,  he  engaged  in  the  service  of 
tne  latter ;  acutely  determining  in  his  own  mind 


r  i^^s^^^:&^^- 


Eisi^Sfe.-'  ■ti^''^"!5u  ''*  ' 


HE    COMMANDS    THE    VENETIAN   ARMY. 


43 


A.  D. 

1437. 


A.  D. 

1439. 


that  the  consent  of  his  expected  father-in-law  was  mere 
likely  to  be  extorted  by  compulsion  than  to  flow  voluntarily 
from  gratitude.  In  the  following  year,  when  Venice 
became  a  partner  in  the  war,  she  sought  Sforza,  as 
has  been  already  stated,  for  hpr  commander,  and  on 
his  refusal,  she  intrusted  her  army  to  Gian-Franccsco  di 
Gonzaga  of  Mantua,  by  whom  she  was  foully  betrayed  and 
abandoned. 

From  a  coldness  which  ensued  betveeen  the  two  repub- 
lics, partly  on  account  of  their  common  desire  for  the  same 
general,  P'lorence  made  a  short  separate  peace  ;  and  Sforza, 
wisely  persisting  in  his  former  course  of  action, 
was  no  sooner  disengaged  than  he  embraced  the 
offers  of  the  signory.  (3n  the  formation  of  a  new 
league  against  Milan,  in  which  Rome,  Florence,  and  Genoa 
united  with  A^enice,  the  powers  of  Sforza  were  very  largely 
increased,  and  the  chief  command  of  the  confederate  armies 
was  intrusted  to  his  hand.  The  two  greatest  masters  of 
the  art  of  war  whom  that  time  produced,  and  who  had 
frequently  fought  as  comrades  under  the  same  banner,  were 
now  arrayed  against  each  other ;  and  the  memorable  strug- 
gle which  ensued  between  Sforza  and  Nicolo  Piccinino,  who 
headed  the  Milanese  army,  forms  a  splendid  portion  of 
military  history  ;  from  which,  however,  it  does  not  accord 
with  our  plan  to  select  more  than  a  very  few  of  the  most 
striking  incidents. 

During  the  preceding  year,  in  which  Venice  had  been 
engaged  single-handed,  Brescia,  which  she  gar- 
risoned, was  the  great  object  of  contention.  In  the  ilqa* 
outset  of  thf  campaign,  Gatta  Melata,  who  com- 
manded  the  Venetian  army,  had  distinguished  himself  by  a 
retreat  not  exceeded  in  skill  by  the  most  brilliant  manoeuvre 
on  record.  The  treacherous  desertion  of  the  Duke  of 
Mantua,  who,  quitting  his  first  allies,  transferred  his  whole 
force  to  the  Milanese  service,  intercepted  the  communica- 
tions of  Gatta  Melata  with  the  Venetian  states,  and  placed 
him  between  two  hostile  armies.  Compelled,  therefore,  to 
give  way,  and  unable,  from  want  of  boats,  to  cross  the  Lago 
di  Garda,  which  afforded  the  most  obvious  passage,  he 
boldly  resolved  to  make  its  circuit,  and  to  penetrate  to  the 
Veronese  through  the  mountains  of  Tyrol.  That  difficult 
and  intricate  march,  over  more  than  forty  leagues  of  an  un- 


I  J 


I,'  Kl 


1«; 


44 


SIEGE    AND 


NOBLE    DEFENCE    OF    BRESCIA. 


45 


< 


explored  district,  was  commenced  at  the  beginning  of  win- 
ter ;  and  his  army,  ill-equipped  and  scantily  provisioned, 
had  to  force  its  way  through  an  almost  impracticable  country, 
over  snows,  torrents,  precipices  and  glaciers  ;  in  constant 
apprehension  of  pursuit  by  the  superior  force  before  which 
it  was  retiring,  and  daily  exposed  to  harassing  attacks  from 
the  native  mountaineers,  jealous  of  their  violated  neutrality. 
Even  when  almost  the  last  defiles  were  passed,  more  than 
one  engagement  was  to  be  fought  with  the  Mantuan  troops, 
before  the  Venetians  could  descend  into  the  plains  of  Ve- 
rona •  but  the  intervening  heights  were  carried  sword  in 
hand,  and  merited  vengeance  was  wreaked  on  the  perfidious 
Gonzaga  by  a  wide  ravage  of  his  territories.  Piccinino, 
dissatisfied  with  the  opposition  presented  by  his  new  ally  to 
an  enemy  whom  he  had  considered  beset  with  inextricable 
toils,  spoke  with  bitter  sarcasm  of  the  puny  efforts  of  the 
Duke  of  Mantua,  and  exclaimed,  alluding  sportively  to  Gaita 
Melata's  name,  "  By  St.  Antony  !  this  Cat  has  shown  him- 
self far  wiser  than  the  Mouse  !"* 

Gatta  Melata,  thus  disengaged,  turned  immediately  to  the 
relief  of  the  city  of  Brescia,  which  he  had  been  compelled 
to  abandon  to  its  fate ;  and  whose  little  garrison,  not 
amounting  to  one  thousand  regular  soldiers,  had  been 
invested,  for  more  than  two  months,  by  twenty  thousand 
men  under  Piccinino.  The  Milanese  batteries  were 
mounted  with  artillery  of  similar  huge  caliber  to  those 
monsters  which  we  have  had  occasion  to  describe  more  than 
once  before  ;  and  fifteen  of  their  gigantic  bombards  dis- 
charged stones  of  the  enormous  weight  of  three  hundred 
pounds.  The  defence  was  intrusted  to  the  Podesta  Fran- 
cesco Barbaio,  one  of  the  most  distinguished  personages 
of  his  time  both  in  arts  and  arms.  Besides  the  great  ac- 
tions recorded  of  him  by  Soldo,  himself  an  eyewitness  of 
most  of  them,  there  is  left  to  us  a  commentary  upon  this 
siege  by  Evangelista  Manelmus  ;  who  writes  indeed  with 
inflation  when  he  compares  his  hero  to  Orpheus,  Argus, 
and  Briareus,  but  who  at  the  same  time  adduces  numerous 
instances  both  of  magnanimity  and  wisdom  which  amply 
justify  the  utmost  extent  of  his  more  sober  panegyric.  More 
than  once  did  Barbaro,  when  in  the  extremity  of  distress, 

•  *n^J\  ^^ ^^  '^'*^''  -^^fonio,  rVha  sajmto  piu  la  Gatta  cht*l  Sor^ 

*»*•— Soldo,  Ist.  Bresciana,  apud  Muratori,  xxj.  790. 


reject  with  horror  and  indignation  projects  submitted  to  him 
for  the  assassination  of  Piccinino.     Often  when  the  spirits 
of  the  inhabitants   appeared   to  droop,  he   revived  their 
courage  by  spreading  reports  that  safety  was  to  be  obtained 
no  otherwise  than  by  persevering  resistance,  since  the  enemy 
had  resolved  not  to  admit  of  terms,  and  had  proclaimed  a 
war  of  extermination,  without  pity  either  for  sex  or  age. 
By  night,  he  fixed  in  parts  of  the  external  walls  arrows  to 
which  were  fastened  billets,  addressed  to  the  chief  citizens, 
and  purporting  to  be  written  by  friends  without.     Good  care 
was  taken  that  these  despatches  should  be  found  in  the  morn- 
ing, and  that  they  should  contain  such  tidings  and  advice  as 
best  suited  the  views  of  Barbaro.     After  dexterously  pacify- 
ing the  feuds  by  which  conflicting  factions  distracted  the  city, 
he  succeeded  in  rousing  the  inhabitants  to  supply  the  want 
of  regular  troops,  and  in  arraying  the  whole  population 
againlt   the  enemy.     Burghers,  artisans,  monks,   priests, 
ladies  of  high  rank  and  their  handmaidens,  young  and  old, 
every  class  and  condition,  performed  garrison  duty  without 
a  murmur.     "  We  worked  within,"  says  Soldo,  "  while  the 
foe  worked  without ;"  and,  to  the  astonishment  of  the  be- 
siegers, whenever  a  line  of  rampart  fell  shattered  by  their 
bombardment,  fresh  defences,  raised  by  the  indefatigable 
toil  of  hands  unused  to  war,  appeared  behind,  and  forbade 
their  entrance.     Among  the  women,  a  heroine  of  gentle 
birth,  named  Brayda,  is  especially  noticed ;  her  comrades 
of  the  same  sex  were  distributed  in  battalions,  mustered  at 
the  sound  of  the  drum,  and  were  greatly  useful  in  carrying 
baskets  of  earth  by  torchlight  to  frame  these  secondary 
works.     But  the  plague,  which  had  commenced  its  ravages 
before  the  approach  of  the  enemy,  now  spread  far  more 
widely  than  at  first ;  and  it  was  attended  by  scarcity,  the 
usual  accompaniment  of  a  long  siege  ;  so  that,  in  the  sim- 
ple words  of  Soldo,  who  partook  of  the  miseries  which  he 
records,  "  the  dearth  was  strong,  the  pestilence  was  stronger ; 
and  it  seems  to  me  that  the  citizens  could  not  but  desire  to 
die,  so  evil  was  their  condition."*     Not  more  than  two 
thousand  men  remained  fit  for  service,  and  scarcely  eight 
hundred  of  those  could  be  supplied  with  arms :  yet  two- 
thirds  of  this  little  band  watched  nightly  on  the  walls,  and 

*  Vt  Sup.  809. 


)  \ 


\h 


46 


SORTIES   AND    GREAT   ARTILLERY. 


BLOCKADE    OF    BRESCIA. 


47 


not  content  with  repulsing  hourly  assaults,  they  had  the 
almost  incredible  daring  to  hazard  frequent  sorties.  On 
one  occasion,  when  a  storming  party  had  received  orders  to 
advance,  it  was  deterred  by  the  air  of  confident  security  with 
which  the  garrison  awaited  it.  The  two  hostile  divisions 
stood  under  arms,  gazing  at  each  other  for  more  than  six 
hours,  till  the  Brescians,  insulting  the  backwardness  of  their 
enemy,  danced  on  the  ramparts  to  the  music  of  their  fifes 
and  trumpets.  The  Milanese  at  length  retired  within  their 
lines,  and  the  brave  garrison,  seizing  that  favourable  mo- 
ment, rushed  down  unexpectedly,  and  put  many  to  the 
sword,  with  small  loss  to  themselves.  "The  slain  were 
numerous,"  writes  one  of  the  combatants,  in  a  letter  to  the 
brother  of  the  Doge  Foscari,  "  because  we  had  little  incli- 
nation  for  prisoners."*  Both  that  correspondent  and  Soldo 
speak  with  infinite  glee,  and  almost  in  the  same  words,  of  a 
fortunate  discharge  made  by  one  of  their  great  pieces 
of  ordnance  (la  nostra  Bronzina  grossa).  No  fewer  than 
three  hundred  men  (a  number  which,  in  spite  of  this  con- 
current testimony,  must  be  rejected  as  an  exaggeration) 
perished  by  the  fatal  bullet ;  and  the  enemy,  stupified  at 
the  sight  of  the  numerous  limbs,  each  of  which  is  specifi- 
cally described,  flying  through  the  air  in  horrible  commix- 
ture, hastily  gave  way.  "There  might  you  have  seen 
many  helmets  crowned  with  waving  plumes,  and  filled  with 
almost  living  heads,  forced  with  irresistible  violence  beyond 
a  very  distant  part  of  the  walls."t 

The  besiegers,  nevertheless,  secure  under  the  protection 
of  their  fieldworks,  every  day  pressed  their  approaches 
near€r ;  their  lines  already  reached  the  ditch  which  they  had 
drained ;  more  than  a  single  breach  exposed  the  naked  city  ; 
and  mines  penetrated  into  its  very  centre.  One  assault 
would  have  succeeded  but  for  the  accidental  fail  of  a  shat- 
tered curtain  outwards  instead  of  inwards ;  the  besiegers 
had  taken  the  unavailing  precaution  of  shoring  up  the  exte- 
rior ;  and  if  the  huge  masses  of  stone  had  given  way  in  an 
opposite  direction,  they  would  have  choked  the  inner  ditch, 
and  bridged  it  with  a  causeway  for  their  passage.  That 
combat,  which  began  at  dawn  and  terminated  only  at  sun- 
set, was  renewed  as  murderously  and  as  ineffec'tually  on 


Sanuto  1060, 


Soldo,  804. 


the  following  morning.  It  was  then,  on  the  30th  of  No- 
vember, that  the  enemy  descended  once  more  into  the  ditch, 
and  gained  the  rampart ;  "  but,  by  the  grace  of  God,  they 
were  repulsed,"  writes  Soldo,  whose  words  we  are  employ- 
ing ;  "  and  to  behold  their  men-at-arms,  with  their  plumed 
morions,  tottering  headlong  from  the  battlements  was  a 
great  consolation.  The  air  was  darkened  by  the  bombards, 
musketoons,  javelins,  and  stones  discharged  on  both  sides. 
Here  might  you  see  many  dead  corpses  borne  off,  one  killed 
by  a  cannon-shot,  another  by  small  arms,  a  third  by  a  spear ; 
one-half  of  the  body,  perhaps,  carried  away  by  the  ball,  the 
other  not  to  be  found  anywhere.  Hard  by  stood  women 
lamenting,  *  O,  my  son  !'  or  *  O,  my  husband  !'  No  one 
felt  any  security  that  he  should  not  be  shattered  in  pieces, 
even  to  the  very  nails  of  his  feet. 

"  On  all  sides  women  and  children,  and  such  as  were  un- 
armed or  could  not  fight,  flocked  to  the  ramparts,  bearing  to 
every  spot  at  which  the  battle  was  raging  with  the  most 
fury,  bread,  cheese,  or  wine,  to  refresh  their  defenders."* 
The  enemy  was  beaten  back  on  that  day  also,  and  on  some 
others  which  followed,  with  the  most  destructive  slaughter, 
till  at  length,  in  the  middle  of  December,  Piccinino,  ex- 
hausted by  the  severity  of  his  losses,  and  dispirited  by  re- 
peated failures,  dismantled  his  batteries,  burned  his  engines, 
and,  retiring  to  winter-quarters,  threw  up  some  redoubts  on 
the  principal  approaches  to  the  town,  and  converted  its 
siege  into  a  blockade. 

The  relief  of  these  heroic  citizens,  still  gallantly  support- 
ing themselves  under  complicated  ills,  was  one  of 
Sforza's  earliest  objects  on  assuming  command  in    iVon 
the  following  spring ;  but  for  that  purpose  it  was 
requisite  that  he  should  first  penetrate  the   strong  lines 
within  which  Piccinino  remained  immoveably  intrenched  on 
the  Adige ;  thus  hazarding  a  general  engagement  at  con- 
siderable disadvantage.     Abandoning  that  project  as  almost 
hopeless,  Sforza  next  thought  of  finding  communication  by 
the  Lago  di  Garda.     If  supplies  could  once  be  embarked 
and  transported  across  those  waters,  a  small  escort  might 
convoy  them  to  the  neighbouring  gates  of  Brescia,  or  a 
slight  effort  of  the  garrison  itself  might  secure  their  admit- 

*  Soldo,  801. 


48 


TRANSPORT    OVER  LAND 


I, 


tance ;  for  if  Piccinino  should  interpose  between  the  city 
and  the  lake,  he  would  leave  unprotected  the  approaches 
which  he  now  masked.  But  in  what  manner  was  the  com- 
mand of  the  lake  to  be  obtained  1  The  enemy  navigated  it 
with  a  strong  flotilla,  and  occupied  even  the  peaceful  haunts 
of  that  Sirmio  which  the  memory  of  Catullus  could  not  se- 
cure from  the  ravages  of  war.  The  Venetians,  on  the  other 
hand,  did  not  possess  a  single  boat  upon  its  surface ;  and 
the  immediate  passage  to  it  by  the  Mincio  was  closed  against 
them  since  the  defection  of  the  Duke  of  Mantua. 

These  difficulties,  after  many   days'  consideration,  ap- 
peared insurmountable  to  the  senate,  when  their  attention 
was  drawn  to  a  proposal  which  at  first  seemed  to  them  but 
as  the  wild  fancy  of  an  insane  visionary.     Sorbolo,  a  Can- 
diote,  who  had  accurately  reconnoitred  the  whole  line  of 
country  which  was  to  form  the  scene  of  his  projected  opera- 
tions, offered,  if  he  were  provided  with  ships  and  funds,  to 
transport  a  flotilla  from  Venice  itself  to  the  Lago  di  Garda. 
The  astonishment  of  the  council  at  this  unheard-of  design 
was  mixed  with  pity  for  the  madman  who  could  entertain 
it ;  and  they  treated  as  devoid  of  reason  one  who  imagined 
that  it  was  within  the  compass  of  human  power  to  convey 
a  naval  armament  more  than  200  miles,  first  through  a  dif- 
ficult inland  navigation,  and  then  over  land  itself.     Sorbolo, 
however,  who  anticipated  this  reception,  and  was  by  no 
means  discouraged   at  encountering  it,  persevered  in  his 
representations,  produced  ample  testimony  of  the  soundness 
of  his  intellect  and  of  his  abilities  as  an  engineer,  submitted 
the  general  outline  of  his  plan  to  the  senators,  explained  its 
details,  silenced  their  objections,  stimulated  their  hopes,  and 
at  last  obtained  permission  to  attempt  the  experiment.    Six 
galleys,  two  of  them  of  the  first  rate,  and  five-and-twenty 
barks  were  intrusted  to  him  ;  and  with  that  force  he  com- 
menced and  accomplished  an  enterprise  which,  although 
subsequently  disregarded,  if  not  forgotten,  from  the  want 
of  any  result  adequate  to  its  magnitude,  may  be  reckoned 
among  the  most  stupendous  triumphs  of  human  skill,  and 
assuredly  is  without  parallel  in  history.     The  much-vaunted 
operation  by  which  Mahomet  II.  obtained  possession  of  the 
harbour  of  Constantinople  was  bold  nnd  ingenious,  but  it 
cannot  justly  be  assimilated  to  that  of  Sorbolo.    The  ground 
which  Mahomet  had  to  pass  is  described  by  Gibbon  as  "  un- 


atiaMAiSi^feiiMiMiMwi 


OF   THE    VENETIAN   FLOTILLA. 


49 


even  and  overspread  with  thickets  ;"  yet  it  was  sufficiently 
level  to  admit  a  broad  wooden  platform,  along  which  the 
vessels,  rolling  smoothly,  and  assisted  by  their  sails,  com- 
pleted their  course  in  the  narrow  compass  of  a  single  night. 
Three  other  transportations  of  ships  over  land  are  men- 
tioned by  the  same  historian  :  one  by  Hannibal,  through  a 
single  street  of  Tarentum,  from  its  citadel  to  the  harbour ; 
another,  acknowledgedly  fabulous,  across  the  easy  slip  of 
the  Isthmus  of  Corinth,  by  Augustus,  after  the  battle  of 
Actium  ;  and  a  third  on  the  same  spot,  by  Nicetas,  a  Greek 
general  of  the  tenth  century.*  Gibbon  adds  that  it  is  not 
impossible  Sorbolo  might  be  the  adviser  and  agent  of  Ma- 
homet, a  conjecture  in  which  he  has  been  preceded  by  the 
copious  and  indefatigable  Knowles  ;t  and  as  there  was  a 
lapse  of  only  fourteen  years  between  the  two  transactions, 
such  a  supposition  is  not  forbidden  by  anachronism. 

The  flotilla,  having  sailed  to  the  mouth  of  the  Adige,  was 
towed  against  its  current  to  a  spot  about  eight  leagues  be- 
low Roveredo,  probably  that  at  which  the  little  stream  Co- 
meraso  discharges  itself  into  the  larger  river.  From  that 
position  to  Torbolo,  the  nearest  port  on  the  north-eastern 
extremity  of  the  Lago  di  Garda,  is  a  distance  in  a  straight 
line  of  nearly  fifty  miles.  Somewhat  more  than  half-way 
is  a  small  lake  called  by  the  contemporary  writers  Sant* 
Andrea,  and  now  known  as  the  liago  di  Loppio.  To  that 
lake,  along  a  tract  which  is  for  the  most  part  level,  the 
smaller  vessels  were  transported  on  carriages  ;  and  the  gal- 
leys, having  been  mountea  on  rollers,  were  dragged  by  the 
joint  labour  of  men  and  oxen ;  about  three  hundred  of  the 
latter  being  required  for  each  ship.  On  the  opposite  bank 
rose  Peneda,  a  part  of  the  lofly  and  precipitous  mountain- 
range  of  Baldo,  stemming  the  waters  over  which  it  hung 
with  an  impregnable  rampart,  and  presenting  but  a  single 

*  Decline  and  Fall,  ch.  Ixviii.  vol.  xii.  p.  210.  Phranza  is  the  authority 
cited  for  the  operations  of  Augustus  and  Nicetas ;  Polybius  (viii.  ad  Jin.) 
for  that  of  Hannibal. 

Burckhardt,  in  his  Materials/or  a  History  of  the  Wahdbys,  mentions 
a  bold  offer  made  by  an  Englishman  in  1813  to  Mohammad  Aly,  Pacha 
of  Egypt.  He  proposed  to  convey  a  frigate  from  Alexandria  to  Cairo  by 
water,  and  thence  across  the  desert  to  Suei,  a  distance  of  about  eighty 
miles.  "  He  seemed  confldent  that  the  undertakmg  was  practicable,  but 
his  project  deviated  too  much  from  the  usual  routine  of  tlungs  to  bv 
adopted  by  the  Turks."— 362. 

t  Historic  of  the  TurUs,  \\  3M. 

Vol.  II.— E 


;      f 

l' 


^: 


50 


SUCCESS   OF   SORBOLO. 


narrow  opening  formed  by  the  slender  thread  of  a  winter 
torrent.  By  the  slow  toil  of  many  thousand  peasants  col- 
lected from  the  neighbourhood,  the  base  of  that  hard  rock 
was  levelled,  the  trees  which  choked  the  bed  of  the  alnH)8t 
headlong  stream  were  felled,  and  its  channel  was  sufficiently 
enlarged  to  admit  the  breadth  of  a  galley  ;  meanwhile,  the 
fragments  of  stone  and  the  trunks  and  boughs  of  the  trees 
which  had  fallen  beneath  the  axe  were  employed  to  found  a 
rude  causeway,  the  surface  of  which  was  covered  with 
earth ;  and  up  this  abrupt  and  tortuous  passage,  extending 
for  more  than  a  mile,  the  ships  were  painfully  forced  by 
levers,  pulleys,  and  windlasses  to  the  summit  of  the  moun- 
tain, which  is  described  as  diflicult  of  ascent  at  all  times, 
even  to  a  lightly-clad  and  unarmed  traveller.  Sabelhco, 
who  visited  the  spot  about  fifty  years  afterward,  wheu  as- 
sured that  it  was  the  line  of  this  march,  viewed  it  with 
astonishment  and  incredulity  ;  nor  was  his  unbelief  removed 
till  the  guides  pointed  to  manifest  traces,  and  showed  a 
deep  rut  worn  into  the  rock ;  an  eternal  monument,  as  it 
were,  of  the  mighty  work  of  Sorbolo.* 

A  small  portion  of  table-land  which  crowned  the  moun- 
tain's head  was  speedily  crossed,  and  at  its  extreme  verge 
the  wished-for  lake  was  descried.  But  here  fresh  and  still 
greater  dilficultics  than  had  hitherto  been  encountered  were 
to  be  overcome  ;  for  the  rock  for  about  half  a  mile  was 
almost  scarped,  thickly  wooded,  and  untracked  even  by  the 
slippery  paths  of  a  hunter  or  a  goatherd.  It  seemed  as  if 
on  such  a  spot  the  flotilla  must  be  destined  to  certain  de- 
struction ;  but  the  trees  were  again  felled,  and  the  pickaxe 
hewed  out  a  shelving  course,  dislodging  huge  masses  of 
granite,  which,  as  they  thundered  below,  contributed  to  di- 
minish the  fearful  height.  After  a  few  days'  preparation, 
the  ships,  harnessed,  if  we  may  so  say,  to  powerful  ma- 
chinery, and  obedient  to  the  huge  tackling  by  which  they 
were  restrained,  glided  slowly  and  almost  insensibly  through 
a  groove  worn  by  their  own  weight  into  the  waters  which 
bathed  the  foot  of  the  mountain.  One  only,  it  is  said,  of 
the  whole  armament  was  disabled  in  this  most  extraordi- 
nary enterprise,t  which  occupied  three  months  in  its  per- 

*  Dec.  iii.  lib.  3. 

t  We  have  here  chiefly  followed  the  minnte  narrative  of  Poceio  Brac- 
ciohni,  Hist.  Flor.  apud  Muratori, «.  lib.  vii.  p.  299.  *** 


BATTLE    OF   TENNA. 


51 


formance,  fifteen  days  of  which  were  consumed  in  the  pas- 
sage over  land. 

This  labour  and  ingenuity,  however,  was  afler  all  but 
fruitlessly  exerted  ;  for  scarcely  had  the  armament  crossed 
the  Lago  di  Garda  when  Piccinino  overwhelmed  it  with  a 
superior  force,  frustrated  every  movement  which  Sforza 
attempted  in  its  support,  and  captured  or  destroyed  the 
greater  number  of  its  vessels.  Thus  baffled  in  his  projects, 
irritated  by  disappointment,  and  feeling  that  his  reputation 
demanded'  success  for  its  maintenance,  Sforza  determined 
on  penetrating  at  all  hazards  to  Brescia,  now  reduced  to 
extremity.  Want  was  at  its  height  in  that  devoted  city, 
and  the  streets,  crowded  with  the  dead  or  dying,  echoed 
only  to  the  cries  of  famished  children,  "  Bread  !  bread  !  for 
the  love  of  God,  bread  !"*  No  other  route,  however,  was 
open  to  the  Venetian  army  than  a  direct  countermarch  by 
those  mountains  over  which  Gatta  Melata  had  effected  his 
skilful  retreat ;  and  that  difficult  course  was  accordingly 
undertaken.  But  Piccinino  carefully  watched  the  progress 
of  his  adversary,  hung  upon  his  steps,  and,  secure  of  the 
navigation  of  the  Lago  di  Garda,  was  able  to  choose  at 
pleasure  the  most  favourable  moment  for  attack.  It  was 
on  the  9th  of  November  that  Sforza  presented  himself  be- 
fore the  fortress  of  Tenna,  which  commands  a  narrow  defile 
on  the  north-western  angle  of  the  lake  ;  and  Piccinino,  un- 
wiUing  to  abandon  that  important  post,  no  longer  deferred 
battle.  The  Venetians,  entangled  on  disadvantageous 
ground,  fought  with  resolution,  but  with  little  hope  of  vic- 
tory ;  till  the  appearance  of  a  detachment  from  the  garrison 
of  Brescia  on  the  neighbouring  heights,  whence  they  rolled 
heavy  stones  into  the  plain,  struck  the  Milanese,  whose  rear 
they  menaced,  with  an  ill-justified  panic.  Terror  ran  along 
their  wavering  lines  till  the  rout  became  general;  and 
whole  divisions,  throwing  away  their  arms,  sought  escape 
by  flight,  which  for  the  most  part  only  exposed  them  as  a 
more  easy  prey  to  the  pursuit  of  their  enemies.  Piccinino 
himself,  with  no  more  than  ten  companions,  found  refuge 
within  the  castle  of  Tenna,  which  afforded,  indeed,  safety 
for  the  moment,  but  from  its  scanty  garrison  and  slight  de- 
fences forbade  hope  of  any  continued  resistiance.     The  Ve- 

*  Soldo,  819, 


52 


SINGULAR    ESCAPE    OF    PICCININO. 


netians,  meantime,  secure  of  their  prisoner,  disposed  senti- 
nels round  the  fortress  as  evening  fell,  and  confidently 
awaited  his  surrender  on  the  following  morning.  To  trav- 
erse the  field  of  battle  undetected,  and  to  penetrate,  not  only 
through  the  cordon  of  armed  men  by  which  the  fort  itself 
was  surrounded,  but  even  through  the  main  Venetian  army 
encamped  in  its  rear,  might  be  supposed  an  impossible 
attempt ;  yet  such  was  the  daring  enterprise  upon  which 
Piccinino  unhesitatingly  resolved.  His  difficulty  was  in- 
creased by  his  infirmities ;  for  in  consequence  of  former 
wounds  he  was  unable  to  walk  without  support,  and  no 
horse  could  be  procured  in  his  present  retreat.  Relying, 
however,  on  the  tried  fidelity  of  one  of  his  attendants,  a 
German,  remarkable  for  extraordinary  bodily  strength,  he 
placed  himself  in  a  sack  half-filled  with  rags,  and  quitted 
his  hiding-place  in  the  dead  of  night,  borne  on  the  shoulders 
of  his  trusty  and  vigorous  guardian.  When  the  Venetian 
sentinels  challenged  the  German  as  he  crossed  the  field  of 
battle,  he  seemed  and  replied  as  if  he  were  one  of  those 
camp-followers  whose  hateful  trade  is  to  despoil  the  dead ; 
asserting  that  his  present  occupation  was  a  search  for 
booty,  and  his  burden  one  of  the  slain,  who  appeared  of  suf- 
ficient value  to  repay  the  trouble  of  carriage.  Under  that 
disguise,  perhaps  not  wholly  without  connivance  (for  it  was 
with  condottieri  that  he  was  dealing,  and  Piccinino  was  be- 
loved by  all  who  at  any  time  had  served  under  him),  he 
gained  a  spot  of  safety,  and  found  means  to  provide  his 
master  with  a  horse.  A  few  hours  placed  the  fugitive  be- 
*  yond  the  reach  of  pursuit,  and  restored  him  to  his  compan- 


ions m  arms.' 


In  the  following  campaign,  during  the  greater  part  of 
which  Sforza  continued  to  be  successful,  Brescia 
was  at  length  permanently  relieved.     Both  armies 
continued  in  perpetual  activity  ;  but  to  abridge  the 
narrative  of  their  numerous,  rapid,  and  inconclusive  opera- 


A.  D. 

1440. 


*  There  are  some  sligbt  variations  in  the  different  accounts  of  this  ea 
cape  of  Piccinino.    We  have  followed  that  given  by  Platina,  Hist.  Mont, 
apud  Murat.  xx.  82^ ;  and  three  lines  which  corroborate  it  in  theiVoviw 
Mars  de  gestis  N.  Piccinini  of  Laurentius  Spiritus  of  Perugia. 

Fecesi  dentro  un  saccho  per  huom  morto 
La  nocte  trare  fuor  molto  nascoso, 
Fortato  di  lontan  per  fino  al  porto.— ii.  57. 


OVERTURES  OF  VISCONTI. 


58 


tions,  would  be  no  more  than  to  frame  a  confused  and  ill- 
assorted  patchwork.     Winter  terminated  the  operations  of 
the  field ;  and  so  soon  as  Sforza  retired  to  cantonments  he 
received  full  proof  that  he  had  rightly  estimated  the  policy 
which  he  might  most  advantageously  adopt  in  his  transac- 
tions with  Filippo-Maria.     Although  the  arms  of  the  con- 
dottieri in  the  service  of  Milan  had  been  unfortunate,  they 
were  still  clamorous  for  reward  :  and,  if  the  duke  had  com- 
plied with  their  demands,  he  must  have  partitioned  his  do- 
minions among  them.     In  order  to  disengage  himself  from 
this  rapacity,  he  made  secret  overtures  to  Sforza,  and  again 
hel  I  out  the  glittering  lure  of  a  union  with  his  daughter  as 
the  price  of  treachery  to  Venice.     The   situation  of  the 
Veietian  general  was  at  that  moment  full  of  peril.     The 
bad  faith  of  the  Duke  of  Milan  always  rendered  his  prof- 
fers suspected,  and  hitherto  he  was  not  sufficiently  distressed 
to  find  bis  interest  in  sincerity  :    nevertheless,  although 
Sforza  distinctly  perceived  that  the  hour  had  not  yet  arrived 
which  was  to  elevate  his  fortunes  to  the  lofty  pinnacle  he 
ever  kept  steadily  in  view  ;  and  although  he  determined  to 
avoid  any  present  committal  of  himself  to  the  tempter  by 
whom  he  was  beset ;  still  a  knowledge  that  he  had  been  in 
communication  with  Milan  was  not  likely  to  escape  the 
keen  and  vigilant  ^ye  of  the  Venetian  signory  ;  and  the 
fate  of  Carmagnuola  announced  the  fearful  consequences 
of  their  awakened  jealousy.     In  order  therefore  to  escape 
the  possibility  of  suspicion,  Sforza  employed  the  winter  in 
a  visit  to  the  capital,  where  he  undisguisedly  disclosed  the 
proposals  of  Visconti,  and  was  treated  with  that  confidence 
and  distinction  which  had  been  earned  both  by  his  loyalty 
and  his  valour.     Francesco  Barbaro  and  a  hundred  noble 
Brescians,  his  comrades,  were  invited  at  the  same  time  to 
receive  substantial  testimonies  of  the  gratitude  of  the  re- 
public ;  and  the  festivities  in  honour  of  all  those  illustrious 
guests  were  heightened  by  fresh  rejoicings  to  celebrate  the 
marriage  of  Giacopo  Foscari,  a  son  of  the  doge.     The  cus- 
tomary splendour  of  justs  and  tournaments,  and  the  display 
of  the  Bucentaur  freighted  with  the  noblest  and  fairest  ma- 
trons whom  Venice  could  boast,  formed  the  least  gorgeous 
portion  of  those  magnificent  spectacles  ;  during  which  a 
bridge  was  thrown  across  from  the  church  of  San  Samuels 
t«  the  jRiva  di  San  Barnaba,  in  order  that  the  nuptial  pomp 

E2 


54 


GREAT  DANGER  OF  SFORZA. 


might  proceed  on  horseback  to  convey  the  bride  from  the 
palace  of  her  father  Contarini. 

This  absence  of  Sforza  from  his  quarters  enabled  Pic- 

j^  ^^      cinino  to  open  the  campaig^i  with  considerable  suc- 
1441*.     ^^^^  '  ^^^  ^^^  parsimony  of  Venice  had  so  far  crip- 
pled her  general,  that  in  the  middle  of  the  ensuing 
summer  his  forces  were  altogether  inadequate  to  face  his 
opponent.     By  a  series  of  skilful  manoeuvres,  however,  he 
avoided  any  general  engagement ;  and,  having  gained  a 
march  upon  his  enemy,  he  sat  down  before  the  fortress 
of  Martenengo,  which  intersected  the  communication  be- 
tween Bergamo  and  Brescia.     But  that  castle  was  strongly 
garrisoned ;  and  Piccinino,  first  extending  his  much  supe- 
rior numbers,  and  then  gradually  contracting  their  circle,  at 
last  completely  surrounded  the  hostile  camp,   cut  off  its 
supplies,  made  retreat  impossible,  and  threatened  its  rear 
if  the  operations  of  the  siege  should  be  continued.     The 
forage  and  provisions  of  Sforza  were  already  exhausted  ; 
no  convoys  could  penetrate  the  lines  by  which  he  was  envi- 
roned ;  day  and  night  his  troops  were  harassed  by  real  oi 
false  aitacks ;  and,  even  if  he  should  attempt,  as  a  last 
hope,  to  cut  his  way  through  the  Milanese,  his  own  means 
were  so  feeble  when  compared  with  the  great  strength  of 
his  enemy's  position,  that  the  escape  of  any  part  of  his 
army  was  more  than  doubtful.     Every  hour  contributed  to 
increase  his  peril,  and  he  already  surrendered  himself  to 
the  most  melancholy  forebodings  ;  the  sun  of  his  glory  ap- 
peared about  to  set  in  darkness  ;  the  loss  of  his  bands  in- 
volved in  it  the  total  destruction  of  his  power  ;  and  all  those 
long  and  fondly  cherished  dreams  of  future  sovereignty, 
which  he  had  lately  deemed  approaching  their  realization, 
were  now,  alas  !  to  be  dissipated  for  ever. 

But  the  Duke  of  Milan  had  far  too  much  sagacity  not  to 
perceive  that,  if  he  completed  the  destruction  of  Sforza,  he 
should  at  the  same  time  deprive  himself  of  the  single  coun- 
terpoise by  which  he  could  hope  to  balance  his  own  refrac- 
tory generals  ;  and,  paradoxical  therefore  as  it  might  seem, 
Sforza  never  possessed  so  commanding  an  influence  as  at 
this  very  moment  in  which  he  appeared  to  stand  on  the  brink 
of  rum.  While  he  brooded  despondingly  over  his  cheerless 
prospects,  one  of  the  most  confidential  agents  of  Filippo- 
Maria  was   introduced  at  midnight  to   his   tent.     After 


VISCONTI OFFERS  PEACE. 


56 


vividly  portraying  the  certain  dangers  to  which  the  Vene- 
tian army  was  exposed,  and  the  impossibility  of  its  escape, 
that  envoy  represented  also  the  motives  which  induced  his 
master  not  to  press  his  triumph  to  extremity ;  and  he  con- 
cluded with  an  unexpected  offer  of  peace  ;  to  obtain  which 
the  Duke  of  Milan  would  not  only  abandon  all  the  conquests 
made  by  Piccinino  during  the  present  campaign,  but  would 
also  immediately  complete  the  marriage  between  Sforza  and 
his  daughter,  bestowing  upon  her  as  a  dowry  the  territory 
of  Cremona.     There  could  not  now  be  any  reason  for  mis- 
trusting the  sincerity  of  this  proposal ;  for  Sforza  was  al- 
ready in  Visconti's  power,  and  it  was  unnecessary  to  de- 
ceive him.     Equally  astonished  therefore  and  overjoyed,  the 
Venetian  general,  although  not  intrusted  with  plenary  au- 
thority, accepted  the  welcome  conditions  on  his  own  respon- 
sibility.    The  preliminaries  were  signed  at  the  moment ; 
and,  on  the  morrow,  both  Piccinino  iji  the  Milanese  camp, 
and  the  pravveditori  in  that  of  the  Venetians,  received,  with 
similar  wonder,  although  with  far  different  satisfaction,  the 
announcement  that  hostilities  had  ceased.     The   former, 
heart-stricken  at  perceiving  the  fruits  of  a  whole  life  of  toil 
and  peril  wrested  from  his  grasp  at  the  moment  in  which  he 
felt  most  secure  of  their  possession ;  and  learning  the  ag- 
grandizement of  his  rival  when  he  most  confidently  antici- 
pated his  utter  humiliation,  at  first  refused  obedience  ;  and 
when  compelled  by  threats  of  coercion  to  fulfil  his  orders, 
he  bitterly  denounced  the  proverbial  ingratitude  of  princes. 
It  was  now,  said  the  veteran  warrior,  that  he  first  painfully 
felt  the  overwhelming  burden  of  old  age.     He  had  wasted 
his  best  years,  had  endured  loss  of  health  and  vigour,  and 
had  become  infirm  from  wounds,  in  the  service  of  a  master, 
who,  at  the  close  of  a  life  devoted  to  the  advancement  of  his 
interests,  deemed  him  unworthy  of  admission  to  his  coun- 
cils ;  and  bestowed  the  very  provinces,  which  himself  had 
so  often  either  defended  or  conquered,  upon  that  enemy 
from  whom  they  had  been  either  shielded  or  regained. 

Yet  in  spite  of  these  just  reproaches,  which  Piccinino 
uttered  against  Visconti,  he  consented  to  an  interview  with 
Sforza,  and  the  two  great  generals  met  with  apparent  con- 
fidence and  cordiality.  The  small  suite  which  accompanied 
them  was  unarmed,  and  each  expressed  and  probably  felt 
for  the  other  profound  sentiments  of  esteem.    Their  camps 


ir'^U^^t 't^  Si:i<^  *t   Aj*. 


56 


DEATH  OF  FILIPPO-MARIA  VISCONTI. 


{ 


were  no  longer  separated,  and  in  their  union  they  exhibited 
a  scene  of  unbounded  festivity.  Meantime,  the  decided 
step  which  Sforza  had  taken  was  notified  and  approved  at 
Venice.  Perhaps  he  might  not  be  wholly  without  misgiving 
as  to  the  judgment  which  would  be  passed  upon  it  by  his 
employers.  But  the  signory  loudly  applauded  his  prompt 
exercise  of  discretion ;  their  plenipotentiaries  attended  a 
congress  at  Capriana,  whence  the  peace  there  concluded 
derived  its  name ;  and  when  Sforza  had  received  the  hand 
of  his  youthful  bride,  who  is  described  to  have  possessed 
rare  beauty  joined  to  yet  rarer  talents,  he  was  invited,  to- 
gether with  the  princess,  to  the  Venetian  capital,  where 
they  were  entertained  with  unwonted  magnificence. 

The  few  remaining  years  of  the  Duke  of  Milan's  life  con- 
tinued to  be  agitated  by  his  former  ever-fluctuating  policy. 
At  one  moment  in  alliance,  at  the  next  engaged  in  war  with 
Sforza ;  now  provoking  Venice  by  hasty  infractions  of  the 
treaty  of  Capriana,  and  then  as  unexpectedly  negotiating 
with  her ;  this  subtle,  restless,  intriguing,  and  unhappy 
prince  remained  unchanged  on  his  very  death-bed,  dissem- 
bled to  the  public  eye  the  malady  by  which  he  was  op- 
pressed, and  expired  before  any  one,  except  his  physicians, 
suspected  his  danger  or  even  his  disorder.  The  per- 
1447  ^^"^'  habits  of  this  last  duke  of  the  house  of  Vis- 
•  Aug.  7.  ^'^^^^  have  been  drawn,  with  singular  minuteness,  by 
one  accurately  qualified  for  the  task,  Pietro  Candido 
Decembrio,*  a  son  of  the  private  secretary  of  Giovanni 
Galeazzo,  and  who  himself  filled  more  than  one  high  ofl[ice 
in  the  court  of  Filippo-Maria.  The  character  which  he  has 
described  presents  an  odious  mixture  of  cunning,  supersti- 
tion, and  cowardice  ;  paralleled,  in  many  instances,  by  one 
whose  biography  has  been  almost  as  closely  recorded,  the 
detestable  Louis  XL  of  France.  Some  of  the  particulars 
which  we  give  below  may  perhaps  be  considered  almost  un- 
worthy even  of  the  trifling  pages  of  a  memoir-writer ;  but 
we  transcribe  them  as  illustrative  not  only  of  the  manners 
of  a  remarkable  individual,  but  in  some  measure  of  the  gen- 
eral habits  of  the  age. 

The  person  of  Filippo-Maria  was  most  forbidding,!  and 

*  Apud  Murat.  xx. 

t  Decemhrio  does  not  allow  the  ill-favourednegs  of  his  master:  yet  it 
eertainly  may  be  deduced  from  some  of  his  expressiOHs.  JEneas.  Syl- 
vius affirms  it  in  the  plainest  terms 


CHARACTER  OF   VISCONTI. 


67 


extreme  meagemess  in  youth  was  succeeded,  as  life  ad- 
vanced, by  more  than  proportionate  obesity.     His  eyes  were 
large,  fiery,  and  piercing,  ever  wandering  with  a  restless 
glare,  as  if  unable  or  unwilling  to  continue  long  fixed  in 
repose  on  a  single  object.     From  weakness  in  his  legs,  he 
always  employed  a  stick,  and  during  his  whole  reign  no 
one  ever  saw  him  walking  without  the  support  of  an  at- 
tendant.    Although  choice  in  the  richness  and  fashion  of 
his  clothes,  he  was  negligent  even  to  uncleanliness  in  the 
processes  of  shaving  and  combing.     In  other  persons  he 
abhorred  any  splendour  of  attire,  and  forbade  those  who 
used  it  from  approaching  his  presence  :  insomuch  that  when, 
on  one  occasion,  Amadeus,  a  Piedmontese  prince,  connected 
with  him  by  marriage,  presented  himself  at  an  audience  in 
a  fantastic  mode  borrowed  from  the  French,  and  at  that 
time  very  prevalent  among  personages  of  distinction,  the 
Duke  of  Milan  ordered  his  forester  to  bring  up  some  hounds 
strapped  in  those  hunting  doublets  which  were  worn  for  pro- 
tection in  the  wild-boar  chase  ;  and  pointed  in  derision  to 
the  leathern-girt  dogs  as  fitting  mates  for  his  tightly  appar- 
elled visiter.     In  his  diet  he  was  most  whimsical ;  turnips 
and  quails  were  among  his  chief  luxuries  ;  yet  such  was 
his  detestation  of  fat,  that  every  morsel  of  it  was  carefully 
pared  away  from  the  latter  before  they  were  dressed.     But 
the  livers  of  all  animals  formed  his  choicest  dainty,  and  his 
cook  was  frequently  summoned  in  the  dead  of  night  to  kill 
a  calf  and  prepare  that  favourite  repast.     The  fowls  des- 
tined for  his  table  were  generally  plucked  in  his  presence. 
His  chief  amusements  were  field  sports,  and  so  retentive 
was  his  memory  on  subjects  connected  with  the  kennel  and 
the  stable,  that  he  could  tell  the  breed  of  a  puppy  but  once 
seen,*  and  knew  accurately  the  number  of  bridles  which 
he  ought  to  find  in  his  harness-room.     Many  of  his  dogs 
were  imported  from  Britain  ;  yet  however  passionately  fond 
he  might  be  both  of  them  and  of  horses,  to  each  he  was  a 
capricious,  and  sometimes  a  cruel  master  :  thus,  if  a  hound 
committed  a  fault,  he  would  dismount  and  flog  him  savagely 
with  his  own  hand ;  if  a  horse  neighed  unseasonably,  he 
would  mutilate  his  tongue  ;  and  if  the  poor  animal  champed 

♦  Like  the  glutton  of  the  satirist— 

Qui  semel  aspecti  litttts  dicebat  echini. 


LSiiihJM,'^ 


58 


CHARACTER  OF  VISCONTI. 


CHARACTER    OF    VISCONTI. 


i 


i; 


11 


the  bit,  he  would  pull  out  his  teeth.  Within  doors,  he  oc- 
casionally  employed  himself  in  reading,  foisall  the  Visconti 
cultivated  literature ;  and  he  had  the  good  taste  to  prefer 
^  Livy,  Dante,  and  Petrarch  to  most  other  writers.  Yet  not 
a  few  of  his  leisure  hours  were  devoted  to  the  inspection, 
perhaps  to  the  actual  management,  of  a  puppet-show,*  upon 
which  toy  he  had  expended  the  great  sum  of  1500  pieces 
of  gold. 

For  the  most  part,  however,  he  lived  in  close  seclusion  ; 
and  even  his  pages  underwent  a  long  discipline  of  tuition  to 
qualify  them  for  the  moroseness  and  asceticism  of  their 
future  master.     They  were  separated  from  their  families 
during  tv^o  years,  and  exercised  in  silence  and   solitude 
under  fitting  governors  till  they  became  accustomed  to  the 
habits  of  the  melancholy  court  which  they  were  about  to 
enter.     Clinging  strongly  to    life,  and  contemplating  its 
termination  with  alarm,  Filippo-Maria  daily  recounted  to 
his  physicians,  with  the  minutest  particularity,  all  circum- 
stances affecting  his  health,  Hstened  with  trembling  anxiety 
,  to  their  reports  in  answer,  and  yielded  implicit  obedience 
even  to  their  most  frivolous  prescriptions.     All  conversa- 
tion which  might  bring  death  to  mind  was  carefully  avoided 
in  his  presence,  and  if  the  discourse  at  any  time  happened 
to  involve  any  allusion  to  mortality,  he  shrank  from  it  with 
manifest  uneasiness.     Even  when  bodily  infirmity  increased 
upon  him,  and  when  in  his  latter  years  he  was  afflicted  with 
almost  total  blindness,  so  unwilling  was  he  to  expose  that 
defect  to  observation,  that  his  attendants  were  instructed  to 
warn  him  secretly  of  all  objects  or  persons  near  at  hand,  so 
that  he  might  not  inadvertently  betray  his  want  of  sight. 
If  he  walked  abroad,  he  appeared  absorbed   in  incessant 
devotion,  repeating  prayers  in  a  low  voice  and  counting 
them  on  his  fingers  ;  insomuch  that  religion  seemed  with 
him,  not  an  acknowledgment  of  God's  goodness,  but  a  labo- 
rious propitiation  of  the  Divine  wrath  ;   and  whenever  his 
daily  sum  of  prayer  was  in  any  part  forgotten  or  curtailed, 
he  endeavoured  to  compound  for  the  omission  by  a  propor- 
tionate excess  of  almsgiving,  prompted  not  by  charity,  but 
by  terror.     His  sleep  was  so  uncertain  and  disturbed  that  l^e 
frequently  changed  his  couch  thrice  in  the  course  of  a  smgle 

*  U  ludi  genus  qui  ex  imaginibus  depicf  ij3  fit. 


hight,  lying  not  in  the  ordinary  manner,  lengthwise,  but 
across  it ;  or  he  arose  and  paced  his  chamber  for  many 
hours  successively,  with  some  of  the  attendants,  who 
always  watched  in  an  anteroom.     If  his  dreams  had  been 

tevil,  he  prayed  in  tones  scarcely  audible,  turning  at  inter- 
vals to  each  of  the  four  cardinal  points  ;  and  in  order  that 
the  silence  which  he  dreaded  in  his  dark  hours  of  sleepless- 
ness might  be  broken,  many  night-birds  were  confined  in 
the  palace  courts,  whose  screams  were  more  grateful  to  his 
ears  than  uninterrupted  stillness.  A  belief  in  judicial  as- 
trology was  prevalent  in  his  times,  and  he  may  be  forgiven 
for  a'cldiction  to  a  folly  by  which  even  the  wise  have  been 
enslaved.  It  but  little,  therefore,  surprises  us  to  hear  that 
he  was  a  rigid  fatalist ;  that  during  conjunction,  opposi- 
tion, sextile,  square,  and  trine,  he  shut  himself  up  in  his 
cabinet,  and  denied  audience  even  to  his  ministers  ;  that  he 
struck  a  golden  medal,  impressed  with  planetary  charac- 
ters, as  a  talisman  against  lightning  ;  that  he  raised  a 
double  wall  in  his  bedchamber  to  protect  himself  from 
thunder;  and  that  during  storms  he  fell  prostrate,  in  a 
remote  corner,  before  an  image  of  Sta.  Barbara.  In  those 
points  he  but  shared  the  superstition  common  to  his  age ; 
but  we  regard  with  equal  astonishment,  contempt,  and 
pity  a  prince  who  thought  it  unlucky  if  he  fastened  his 
right  shoe  on  his  left  foot ;  who  on  Friday  dreaded  the  en- 
counter of  persons  who  were  unshorn,  and  forbore  on  the 
same  day  from  handling  any  bird,  especially  a  quail ;  who 
would  not  mount  a  horse  on  the  feast  of  John  the  Baptist, 
nor  wear  any  suit  but  green  on  the  first  of  May  ;  and  who 
refused  to  eat  on  one  occasion  till  the  dishes  had  been  re- 
moved and  replaced,  because  the  sewer,  while  decking  the 
table,  had  unwittingly  approached  it  with  the  wrong  foot 
foremost.  Such,  however,  were  a  few  of  the  anilities  re- 
corded of  one  who  has  been  esteemed  the  most  politic  sove- 
reign of  his  time  ;  and  who,  if  the  wisdom  of  kings  is  to 
be  graduated  by  no  other  scale  than  that  of  the  mastery 
which  they  attain  of  simulation  and  dissimulation,  abun- 
dantly merited  the  unenviable  distinction  which  he  coveted 
and  enjoyed. 

Although  Filippo-Maria  died  without  legitimate  issue,  he 
claimed  a  right  to  bequeath  his  dominions  by  will,  and  four 
of  those  instruments  were  produced  on  his  demise.     The 


^"'•*'-'' ""!?'■?•  '^T^'^^f^'L 


60 


SIEGE    OF   CARAVAGGIO. 


SIEGE   OF   CARAVAGGIO. 


61 


first  two  named  distant  relatives,  a  third  recognised  the 
Princess  Bianca  as  sole  legatee,  and  in  the  last,  signed  not 
many  days  before  his  death,  at  the  very  moment  at  which 
he  affected  a  renewal  of  confidential  intercourse  with  Sforza, 
he  disinherited  his  daughter,  and  appointed  as  his  successor 
Alfonso,  King  of  Naples.  But  the  Milanese  were  ill  in- 
clined to  submit  their  liberties  to  the  pleasure  of  a  deceased 
master ;  and  although  two  parties  within  the  walls  respect- 
ively advocated  the  pretensions  of  Sforza  and  Alfonso,  a 
great  majority  of  the  citizens  persisted  in  the  assertion  of 
independence,  and  Milan  declared  herself  a  free  republic. 
Sforza,  reduced  to  his  single  fief  of  Cremona,  exposed  to 
the  resentment  of  Venice,  whose  alliance  he  had  abandoned, 
and  far  too  weak  to  press  by  arms  any  claim  to  the  succes- 
sion of  his  father-in-law,  dexterously  temporized  with  this 
new  government,  and  accepted  the  command  of  its  forces. 
The  overtures  for  peace  which  the  Milanese,  on  their  first 
assertion  of  liberty,  had  made  to  Venice,  were  rejected  by 
that  haughty  state  ;  and  she  paid  dearly  in  the  end  for  this 
mistaken  policy  upon  which  the  future  elevation  of  Sforza 
was  mainly  founded. 

In  the  ensuing  campaign,  Sforza  was  eminently  success- 
fill.  He  took  Piacenza,  the  second  city  in  Lombardy,  by 
storm ;  and  at  Casal  Maggiore  he  wholly  destroyed  a  large 
Venetian  flotilla.  The  Bresciano,  if  conquered,  had  been 
stipulated  as  the  price  of  his  services,  and  thither  accord- 
ingly he  earnestly  wished  to  march  immediately  after  this 
victory.  But  it  was  for  their  own  security,  not  for  the 
aggrandizement  of  their  general,  that  the  Milanese  were 
warring,  and  they  peremptorily  instructed  him  to  besiege 
Caravaggio,  a  strongly  fortified  town  in  the  marshes  between 
the  Adda  and  the  Oglio ;  which,  next  to  Lodi,  was  the 
most  formidable  possession  of  Venice  in  the  Cremasco. 
Sforza  did  not  yet  find  it  seasonable  to  disobey  ;  and  he  sat 
down  before  Caravaggio  in  an  intrenched  camp,  completely 
environing  the  town,  and  defended  both  by  the  numerous 
canals  which  everywhere  intersected  the  neighbourhood, 
and  by  lines  carefully  thrown  up  in  his  rear  as  well  as  in 
his  front.  Within  three  days  after  his  occupation  of  that 
post  he  was  followed  by  the  Venetians  under  Attendolo, 
who  pitched  his  tents  close  at  hand,  and  strengthened  his 
camp  by  similar  field-works.     Dailv  skirmishes  ensued  with 


the  cost  of  many  lives  on  both  sides,  but  each  party  was 
too  cautious  to  hazard  a  general  action ;  nor  was  it  till  after 
more  than  thirty  days  diligently  employed  in  forming  his 
preparations  for  attack,  and  increasing  those  for  defence, 
that  Sforza  opened  his  batteries  on  Caravaggio.     A  breach 
was  shortly  reported  to  be  practicable,  but  even  then  he 
was  apprehensive  of  assaulting  in  the  presence  of  a  vigilant 
enemy.     In  the  Venetian  camp,  much  variety  of  opinion 
prevailed  respecting  future  operations.     Attendolo  himself 
and  his  more  experienced  officers  calculated  that  the  want 
of  confidence  evident  between  Sforza  and  the  government 
of  Milan,  the  jealousies  known  to  exist  among  the  hostile 
generals,  and  their  daily-increasing  difficulty  of  obtaining 
supplies,  must  ere  long  compel  them  to  abandon  their  pre- 
sent quarters  ;  and  therefore  that  the  necessity  of  risking 
a  battle  might  be  avoided.      But,  on    the  other   hand,    a 
hotter  spirit  was  found  in  Tiberto  Brandolini,  who,  having 
penetrated  to  Sforza's  line,  in  disguise,  felt  confident  that 
he  had  ascertained  a  passage  by  which  not  only  Caravaggio 
might  be  relieved,  but  the  besieger's  army  itself,  also,  might 
be  surprised  and  routed.     The  senate  was  appealed  to  for 
decision  between  the  conflicting  plans,  and  notwithstanding 
its  habitual  caution,  it  pronounced  in  favour  of  the  boldest. 
One  extremity  of  Sforza's  camp  rested  on  a  morass  cov- 
ered with  high  brushwood,  which  was  deemed  impassable  ; 
but  it  was  through  that  difficult  tract  that  Brandolini  had 
discovered  a  secure  approach.     On  the  15th  of  September, 
Attendolo,  leaving  his  whole  infantry  and  about  sixteen 
hundred  horse  in  his  camp,  with  instructions  to  amuse  the 
enemy  by  the  usual  show  of  skirmishing,  entered  the  mo- 
rass without  being  discovered,  at  the  head  of  ten  thousand 
cavalry.     The  time  chosen  was  about  noon  on  a  Sunday. 
Sforza,  who,  with  his  principal  officers,  was  attending  mass 
in  a  chapel  of  the  virgin  near  the  walls  of  Caravaggio,* 
was  advised  that  some  movement  had  taken  place  in  the 
enemy's  camp  ;  and  not  knowing  on  what  quarter  to  expect 
attack,  he  rode  forward,  unarmed,  to  reconnoitre.     Mean- 
time Attendolo  disengaged  his  troops  from  the  wood,  and 
put  to  flight  a  small  patrol  which  first  encountered  him 
under  Carolo  Gonzaga  ;    who,  having  received   a  slight 


*  P.  Ju8tiruani,  viii.  p,  194.    Sabellico,  i 

Vol.  II.— F 


in.  p.  672. 


li«  ^>rf   g.'l^TJi  1    Wl».   II 


62 


BATTLE    OF    CARAVAGGIO. 


sabre  cut  in  the  face,  turned  liis  horse  at  full  speed,  nor 
stopped  till  he  announced  at  Milan  a  total  defeat  of  hi$ 
comrades.  The  camp,  as  it  was  thought,  was  now  sur- 
prised in  flank,  and  victory  appeared  certain  to  the  assail- 
ants. But  Tiberto,  in  his  reconnoissance,  had  not  o'jserved 
a  deep  wet  fosse  which  protected  it  on  the  side  of  the  mo- 
rass ;  and  which,  cutting  also  the  narrow  platform  already 
gained,  midway  between  the  wood  and  Caravaggio,  effectu- 
ally obstructed  at  that  point  the  advance  of  the  heavy-armed 
cavalry.  On  the  inner  bank  of  that  fosse,  Sforza,  who  now 
penetrated  Attondolo's  design,  collected  his  main  force,  and 
although  still  but  half  armed,  with  his  cuirass  hastily 
buckled  on  and  without  greaves  or  brassarts,  he  watched 
the  moment  at  which  his  enemy  would  be  checked  by  this 
unexpected  barrier.  Their  van  was  led  by  an  officer  well 
known  to  Sforza,  Roberto  Bodiense  ;  who,  mounted  on  a 
fiery  horse,  and  clad  in  glittering  armour,  looked  every- 
where around  him  for  a  passage,  and  throwing  a  confident 
glance  on  the  ranks  opposed  to  him,  called  out  with  military 
bluntness,  "  Count,  you  have  no  chance  to-day  of  escaping 
from  hot  water  !" — "  Trust  me,  Roberto,"  was  Sforza's  an- 
swer, in  a  similar  tone  of  raillery,  "  you  are  not  likely  to 
get  away  without  paying  your  host  his  full  reckoning !" 
and,  at  the  word,  ordering  a  drawbridge  behind  the  Vene- 
tian* to  be  lowered,  he  directed  a  charge  upon  them  so  un- 
expectedly in  rear  that  they  wavered  and  gave  way.  As 
he  observed  the  uncertain  quivering  of  the  hostile  lances, 
when  the  two  lines  first  encountered,  he  recognised  it 
as  a  sure  sign  of  victory,  and  exclaimed  that  the  day  waa 
his  own.  A  second  bridge  poured  forth  upon  their  now 
shattered  mass  a  fresh  column  in  front ;  till,  despairing  of 
success,  they  betook  themselves  to  the  morass  as  affording 
the  sole  chance  of  escape.  Few,  however,  could  regain  the 
firm  path  by  which  they  had  advanced,  and  their  pursuers 
allowed  them  to  plunge  into  the  miry  depths,  from  which 
they  were  extricated  only  to  become  prisoners.  Among 
the  first  who  surrendered  was  their  leader,  Roberto  Bodi- 
ense, who,  in  the  vain  hope  of  disengaging  himself,  and 
aiming  now  at  safety  instead  of  triumph,  had  dismounted 
and  stripped  off  his  heavy  armour.  Sforza,  leaving  behind 
him  the  prey  of  which  he  was  certain  on  his  return,  pressed 
forward  to  the  enemy's  camp,  forced  its  lines,  and  captured 


s-.'avi'  Sif.Jiii..-*MiL  A^M^a 


GENEROSITY    OF    SFORZA. 


63 


llie  five  thousand  infantry  by  which  it  was  defended. 
Stores,  baggage,  tents,  and  treasure,  arms,  horses,  stand- 
ards, and  artillery,  almost  all  the  chief  officers,  and  nearly 
fifteen  thousand  prisoners,  were  the  fruits  of  this  day's 
easy,  although  most  complete,  victory.  Every  horse-boy 
of  the  Milanese,  it  is  said,  returned  opulent  with  pillage. 
Attendolo  himself  had  the  good  fortune  to  escape,  singly, 
from  the  rout,  and  he  endeavoured  to  collect  at  Brescia  the 
scattered  remnant  of  his  army,  now  amounting  in  all  but 
to  two  thousand  men.  The  prisoners,  according  to  the 
custom  of  the  time,  and  in  this  instance  also  from  the  diffi- 
culty which  the  conquerors  found  in  guarding  numbers 
almost  equal  to  their  own,  were  stripped  of  their  arras  and 
accoutiements,  and  then  restored  to  freedom. 

Among  his  captives  none  could  afford  higher  gratification 
to  Sforza  than  the  two  Venetian  provvcditori ;  and  in  his 
treatment  of  one  of  them  he  exhibited  a  brilhant  instance 
of  dignified  forbearance.  Machiavelli,  the  contemporary 
historian,  who  preserves  this  noble  trait  of  character,  does 
not  inform  us  whether  it  was  Hermolao  Donato  or  Gerardo 
Dandolo,*  who  from  the  commencement  of  hostilities  had 
indulged  in  rude  and  unmeasured  invectives  whenever 
Sforza's  name  was  mentioned.  The  "  bastard,"  and  the 
*'  lowborn,"  were  the  terms  by  which  he  had  been  used  to 
distinguish  him.  Exposed  by  his  capture  to  the  merited 
vengeance  of  him  whom  he  had  thus  insulted,  he  was  led 
to  the  count's  tent  overpowered  with  terror,  and  there, 
meanly  humble  in  proportion  to  his  former  insolence,  he 
bowed  down  at  his  feet,  with  tears  and  supplications  for 
pardon.  Sforza  raised  him  gently,  and,  taking  his  hand, 
bade  him  be  of  good  cheer,  and  apprehend  no  ill.  "I 
wonder,"  he  continued,  "  that  a  person  of  your  gravity  and 
prudence  should  have  fallen  into  the  grievous  error  of 
speaking  ill  of  one  undeserving  evil  report.     As  for  the 

*  There  can  be  no  doubt  from  the  narrative  of  Poggio  Braceiolini, 
(Hist.  Ftorent.  viii.  ap.  Murat.  xx.  424),  that  it  was  Dandolo ;  and  that 
iie  had  employed  much  more  than  hard  words  against  Sforza,  whose  life 
be  personally  sought,  on  one  occasion,  with  great  fury,  when  the  count 
was  embarrassed  bv  a  horse  which  had  been  shot  under  him  at  the 
siege  of  Piacenza.  Uonato,  it  seems,  after  the  battle  of  Caravaggio, 
might  have  escaped,  but  he  preferred  surrendering  himself,  stating,  at 
the  same  time,  that  if  he  returned  to  Venice  in  freedom,  at\er  so  gr&at  a 
defpat,  he  knew  the  fate  which  he  must  ex\^ct  from  the  CouncU  of  len. 


64 


GENEROSITY  OF  SFORZA. 


matters  concerning  which  you  have  accused  me,  I  know 
not  what  passed  between  my  father  Sforza  and  my  mother 
Lucia.  I  was  not  present,  nor  had  I  any  means  of  regu- 
lating the  connexion,  whatever  it  might  be,  which  subsisted 
between  them.  On  such  a  point  I  do  not  think,  therefore, 
that  either  praise  or  blame  can  deservedly  attach  to  me. 
But  for  those  things  which  belong  to  my  own  share,  I  have 
ever  endeavoured  so  to  act  as  to  avoid  reproach,  and  to  the 
truth  of  this  assertion  both  yourself  and  your  senate  are 
able  to  bear  testimony.  For  the  future,  let  me  admonish 
you  to  be  more  charitable  in  speaking  of  others,  and  more 
cautious  m  your  own  affairs."*  Self-restraint,  indeed,  was 
one  of  Sforza's  most  eminent  virtues :  an  instance  of  it  in  a 
much  earlier  part  of  his  life,  which  his  biographer  Simoneta 
has  detailed  at  length,  but  which,  as  it  does  not  belong  to 
our  narrative,  would  be  misplaced  here,  is  a  more  remarka- 
ble example  of  the  triumph  of  generous  moral  feeling  than 
even  the  well-known  continence,  as  it  is  called,  of  Scipio.t 
If  peace  were  necessary  to  Venice  after  these  great 
losses,  it  was  scarcely  less  desirable  for  Milan,  whose 
general  had  now  conquered  for  himself  the  right  of  inde- 
pendence. But  from  the  hostile  city,  already  in  the  enjoy- 
ment of  the  fruits  of  victory,  no  very  advantageous  terms 
■were  to  be  expected  by  the  signory  ;  to  Sforza,  on  the  con- 
trary, they  had  much  to  offer,  and  from  him  therefore  much 
in  return  might  be  obtained.  Sforza,  in  the  following  ne- 
gotiation, which  was  conducted  through  some  of  his  prison- 
ers, has  been  taxed  with  perfidy  to  the  state  by  which  he 
was  employed  :  but  it  is  obvious  that  each  party  had  been 
long  weary  of  connexion  with  the  other ;  that  the  bond 
uniting  the  condottieri  with  those  by  whom  he  was  hired 
was  at  all  times  easy  to  be  loosed  ;  and  that  upon  the 
alliance  offered  by  Venice  appeared  to  depend  the  attain- 
ment of  that  substantial  prize,  to  the  pursuit  of  which  he 
had  dedicated  the  best  years  of  his  life.  His  choice  lay 
between  the  realization  of  all  his  brilliant  hopes  if  he  with- 
drew from  his  present  unsatisfactory  engagement,  and  the 
probability  of  ungrateful  rejection  by  those  whom  he  had 
ahready  so  largely  and  so  thanklessly  benefited,  if  he  ad- 

*  Machiav.  1st.  Flor.  vi. 

t  Siraooeta  de  reb.  gest.  F.  Sforza  ap  Morat.  xxi.  262. 


SFORZA  BESIEGES  MILAN. 


(55 


hered  to  it.  So  that  the  decision  which  he  finally  adopted 
may  be  palliated,  by  considering  it  rather  an  act  of  self- 
defence  than  a  breach  of  good  faith.  In  the  course  of  Oc- 
tober, he  agreed  to  surrender  to  Venice  the  entire  Cremasco, 
and  all  his  conquests  in  Bergamo  and  Brescia,  and  in  return 
he  was  recognised  and  guarantied  as  successor  to  the  other 
dominions  of  Filippo-Maria,  to  procure  the  submission  of 
which  the  signory  promised  both  men  and  money.  Victory, 
it  would  seem,  was  little  necessary  for  the  aggrandizement 
of  a  power  which,  on  the  total  destruction  of  a  fleet  and  an 
army,  could  found  the  acquisition  of  a  province. 

Before  the  close  of  the  following  year,  Venice  occupied 
all  the  promised  fortresses,  and  then,  for  the  first      ^^  ^^ 
time,  manifested  coldness  to  her  new  ally.     Her     j^g* 
crooked  state  craft  instructed  her  that  to  divide  the 
Milanese  into  two  separate  small  dominions  was  far  more 
to  her  own  advantage  than  to  establish  one  strong  govern- 
ment in  a  single  hand  ;  and,  in  the  very  teeth  of  her  recent 
guarantee,  she  concluded  peace  with  Milan,  requiring  Sforza 
to  acknowledge  that  republic,  and  to  rest  content  with  a 
small  allotment  for  himself,  carved  out  from  the  former  ter- 
ritory of  Visconti.     War,  as  may  be  supposed,  was  renewed 
between  the  count  and  the  signory.     During  many  months 
he  blockaded  Milan,  till  famine  raged  within  it  in  its      ^  ^^ 
extremest  horrors.     The  Venetians,  meantime,  were    ^^50. 
satisfied  to  observe  the  besieging  army,  and  to  inter- 
cept the  supplies  of  Sforza's  camp  with  no  less  certainty 
than  he  did  those  of  Milan.     Their  position  was  securely 
chosen  ;  tbey  relied  more  upon  time  than  upon  the  sword 
for  ultimate  success  ;  and  they  abstained  from  any  attempt 
to  relieve  their  allies,  from  a  detestable  calculation  that  the 
citizens  must  ultimately  submit,  and  that  the  chances  were 
in  favour  of  their  opening  their  gates  to  Venice  as  their 
future  mistresH  rather  than  to  Sforza. 

But  this  cruel  inaction  frustrated  its  own  purpose.  The 
famished  populace,  stimulated  by  their  own  misery  and  by 
the  indifference  of  their  nominal  friends,  surrounded  the 
palace  in  which  the  magistrates  were  discussing  the  neces- 
sity of  throwing  themselves  into  the  arms  of  Venice.  The 
proposal  when  communicated  to  the  people  was  received 
with  indigantion  ;  and  an  ill-timed  address  from  the  Vene- 
tian envoy,    Leonardo   Venieri,  who   employed  menaces 

F'2 


66 


DISTRACTIONS  IN  MILAN. 


instead  of  conciliation,  roused  them  to  acts  of  violence  of 
which  he  became  the  earliest  victim.     This  sedition,  result- 
ing more  from  impatience  of  continued  suffering  than  from 
any  prearranged  design,  continued  through  the  night  suc- 
ceeding a  day  which  had  been  stained  by  bloodshed :  and, 
on  the  morrow,  when  the  chief  citizens  again  assembled  and 
demanded  what  were  the  wishes  of  the  insurgents,  no  one 
was  prepared  to  suggest  any  definite  course  ;  but  the  uni- 
versal voice  rejected,  with  equal  abhorrence,  submission 
either  to  Sfdrza  or  to  the  Venetians.     The  former,  however, 
was  not  without  secret  agents  within  the  walls,  skilled  in 
the  subtle  direction  of  popular  movements,  and  ready  to 
profit  by  such  opportunities  as  it  was  foreseen  must  occur. 
One  of  those  partisans,  seeing  a  favourable  moment,  ad- 
dressed the  rabble  ;  painted  in  strong  colours  the  incapacity 
of  every  other  protector  who  had  been  named  ;  vaunted  the 
power,  the  goodness,  and  the  clemency  of  Sforza ;  and  as- 
serted his  almost  legitimate  and  hereditary  pretensions,  as 
the  adopted  son  of  their  late  prince,  and  the  husband  of  his 
daughter.     Such  a  connexion,  he  urged,  must  appear  the 
most  natural  which  they  could  estabhsk;  it  would  ensure 
immediate  peace  ;  and,  on  the  very  moment  at  which  it  was 
announced,  it  would  terminate  their  present  most  intolera- 
ble sufferings.     This  prospect  of  instant  relief,  so  adroitly 
exhibited,  was  the  master-key  to  the  passions  of  the  multi- 
tude.    The  loud  curses  which  had  before  pursued  the  name 
of  Sforza  were  exchanged  for  equally  clamorous  bursts  of 
applause ;  he  was  hailed  as  the  lawful  sovereign  and  the 
only  deliverer  of  Milan ;  and  his  wily  agent,  Gasparo  di 
Vilmercato,  was  deputed  to  convey  to  him,  at  the  instant, 
the  adhesion  of  his  new  subjects. 

Sforza,  apprized  of  the  state  of  popular  feeling,  was 
already  approaching  the  walls,  and,  as  a  pledge  of  friendly 
intention,  each  horseman  in  his  escort  bore  with  him  an 
ample  provision  of  bread.  Far  in  advance  of  the  city,  he 
was  met  by  an  eager  crowd,  whose  shouts  of  joy  were  in- 
creased by  this  welcome  and  unexpected  distribution  of  food 
among  their  starving  ranks.  But  to  the  count's  surprise, 
when  he  amved  at  the  ramparts,  the  gates  were  closed  and 
the  drawbridges  raised ;  while  a  small  band  of  the  nobler 
class  addressed  him  from  within,  and,  as  a  condition  of  his 
entrance,  proffered  an  oath  which  might  secure  the  im- 


SFORZA  ENTERS  MILAN. 


67 


munitics  of  the  state,  and  preserve  it  from  the  rule  of  an 
unrestricted  master.  Vilmercato  again  succeeded  in  re- 
moving this  new  obstacle ;  and  Sforza,  confident  in  the 
support  of  his  armed  followers,  hurried  on  by  the  enthusi- 
astic violence  of  the  rabble,  and  little  willing  to  render  that 
throne  conditional  which  might  be  his  own  without  stipula- 
tion, so  soon  as  the  gate  was  opened  rode  on  at  once  to  the 
cathedral ;  and  there,  at  its  porch  in  the  open  street,  unable 
to  dismount  from  the  pressure  of  the  countless  throng  which 
surrounded  him,  offered  up  a  brief  thanksgiving  for  the  boon 
which  Heaven  had  vouchsafed.  Then,  having  distributed 
troops  in  such  posts  as  might  best  secure  possession  of  the 
city,  he  returned  to  his  camp.  Within  a  month  the  re- 
mainder of  Lombardy  was  subdued,  or  tendered  its  sub- 
mission ;  and  on  the  25th  of  March,  Sforza,  accompanied 
by  Bianca  and  his  children,  made  a  solemn  entry  into  his 
capital.  The  magistrates  had  prepared  for  him  a  triumphal 
car,  and  the  rich  canopy  which  appertains  to  royalty,  but 
he  rejected  those  gaudy  trappings  as  unsuited  to  his  habits  ; 
and  assuming  his  princedom  as  he  had  fought  for  it,  in  a 
soldier's  guise  on  horseback,  he  received  the  homage  of  his 
citizens,  and  transferred  the  ducal  crown  of  Milan  to  the 
line  of  THB  Peasant  of  Cotionola. 


88 


SFORZA  CHALLENGES. 


CHAPTER  XIII. 

FROM  A.  D.  1450  TO  A.  D.  1479. 

Continuation  of  the  War  with  Francesco  Sforza— Visit  of  the  Emperor 
Frederic  III.  to  Venice— Peace  with  Sforza— Treaty  with  the  Turks- 
Robbery  of  the  Treasury  of  St.  Mark's-The  two  Foscan— The  In- 
quisition of  State— Turkish  War-Crusade  of  Pius  II.— Death  of 
Francesco  Sforza— Invasion  of  Friuli-Fall  of  Croia— Siege  of  Scu- 
tari—Peace with  Mahoptiet  II. 


A>  D. 

1457.  Lxviii. 
146JJ.  Lxix. 
1471.  Lxx. 

1473.  Lxxi. 

1474.  Lxxii. 
1476.  Lxxiii. 
1478.  Lxxiv. 


DOGES. 

Francesco  Foscari — deposed, 
Pascale  Malipteri. 
Christoporo  Moro. 
NicoLo  Trono. 
NicoLo  Marcello. 

PlETRO  MONCENIGO. 

Andrea  Vendramino. 
Giovanni  Moncenigo. 


The  title  of  Francesco  Sforza  to  the  dukedom  of  Milan 
was  not  recognised  by  Venice  till  four  years  after  he  had 
obtained  virtual  possession  of  the  crown,  and  that  period 
was  occupied  by  an  indecisive  and  uninteresting  war, 
Each  party  sedulously  avoided  the  hazard  of  a  general  en- 
gagement ;  and  the  singular  expedient  which  Sforza  adopted 
on  one  occasion  with  the  seeming  wish  of  provoking  his 
enemy  to  combat,  was  far  more  probably  employed  in  order 
that  he  might  escape  the  imputation  of  backwardness  than 
that  he  might  really  obtain  a  final  appeal  to  arms.     After 

a  campaign  of  varied  manoeuvres,  in  which  each 
1452     commander  successfully  eluded  his  adversary,  the 

Duke  of  Milan  despatched  a  herald  to  the  camp  of 


FREDERIC  III.,  EMPEROR  OF  GERMANY. 


69 


Gentile  Leonissa,  the  general  of  the  republic,  bearing  a 
bloody  gauntlet  and  inviting  him  to  a  pitched  battle :  the 
plain  of  Montechiaro  was  named  as  the  field,  the  time  was 
left  to  the  choice  of  the  Venetians.  This  formal  cartel,  the 
words  of  which  were  precisely  dictated  by  Sforza  himself, 
was  as  formally  answered.*  Two  gauntlets  and  two  lances 
dipped  in  bloodt  were  returned  by  the  herald,  as  pledges 
of  faith,  and  the  defiance  was  accepted  for  the  third  suc- 
ceeding day,  between  three  and  four  hours  after  sunrise. 
Meantime,  instructions  were  issued  similar  to  those  which 
regulated  a  combat  in  the  lists,  and  the  preliminaries  were 
adjusted  with  nice  attention  to  the  habits  of  chivalry. 
When  the  Milanese  displayed  their  line  upon  the  plain  on 
the  appointed  morning,  a  thick  fog  prevented  them  from 
discovering  their  enemy  ;  and,  as  it  withdrew,  only  a  small 
detachment  appeared  in  sight.  The  remainder  were  partly 
intrenched  under  cover  of  the  neighbouring  woods,  or  pro- 
tected from  attack  by  strong,  marshy  ground ;  partly 
threatening  the  scantily  guarded  camp  of  their  opponents. 
A  heavy  rain  prohibited  Sforza's  advance,  and  after  having 
erected  a  column  on  the  plain,  upon  which  the  gauntlets  of 
Leonissa  were  suspended  as  trophies,  he  retired  to  his 
quarters,  claiming  victory  because  he  had  first  offered 
defiance. 

While  engaged  in  this  harassing  and  inglorious  conflict, 
the  republic  nevertheless  exhibited  in  her  capital  a  scene  of 
extraordinary  rejoicing.  Frederic  III.,  twelve  years  after 
his  election  to  the  empire,  assumed  the  imperial  diadem  at 
Rome.  The  iron  crown  of  Lorabardy,  which  in  our  own 
times  has  been  the  coveted  prize  of  the  greatest  conqueror 
in  modem  history,  was  disregarded  by  the  weak  Austrian 
prince,  because  it  was  preserved  at  Monza  in  custody  of 
the  new  Duke  of  Milan,  whose  title  he  refused  to  confirm. 
On  returning  from  his  coronation,  Frederic,  with  his  newly 
married  consort,  Eleonora  of  Portugal,  revisited  Venice, 
through  which  city  he  had  before  passed  on  his  progress  to 
Rome.    The  eternal  Bucentaur,  surrounded  by  unnumbered 


*  Both  Sforza's  challenge  and  Leonissa's  reply  are  given  at  length  by 
Bimoneta,  ap.  Murat.  xxi.  629. 

t  Ancus  Martius  instituted  a  similar  castom  at  Rome  on  a  declara- 
tion of  war.  Fieri  solitum,  ut  feciales  hastam  ferratam  aut  satt- 
KUiaeara  pr<xusta7n  adfuus  eonan  ferret.    Livy  I.  22. 


70 


PEACE    WITH    SFORZA. 


vessels  of  every  name  and  burden,  glittering  with  brocade 
and  tapestry,  gold,  silk,  and  banners,— the  doge  and  his 
court,— the  patricians  and  their  noble  dames,— all  of  dignity 
and  beauty  which  Venice  could  display,  poured  forth  to 
honour  the  imperial  guests  on  their  days  of  separate  arrival. 
A  long  and  brilliant  course  of  festivities  succeeded  ;  and  at 
a  public  ball,  the  illustrious  pair  condescended  to  mingle 
personally  in  the  dance.  Besides  a  golden  crown  set  with 
jewels  presented  to  Eleonora  herself,  the  senate,  as  a  pledge 
of  affection  and  fidelity  to  a  generation  yet  to  come,  offered 
to  the  babe  of  which  the  empress,  although  not  yet  fifteen, 
already  gave  promise,  a  costly  mantie,  and  a  purple  coveriid 
for  Its  cradle,  richly  interwoven  with  pearls.  If  we  are  to 
believe  Justiniani,*  the  emperor,  at  a  banquet  in  the  ducal 
palace,  foretold  that  tbis  bribe  to  the  unborn  infant  would 
prove  unavailing ;  and  turning  to  Foscari,  while  he  protested 
his  own  unchangeable  attachment  to  Venice,  at  the  same 
time  lamented  the  injuries  which  he  foresaw  would  here- 
afler  be  inflicted  on  her  by  his  descendants.  There  is  yet 
another  anecdote  connected  with  this  imperial  visit,  which, 
for  the  credit  of  the  chief  actor  in  it,  might  be  wished  for- 
gotten. Among  the  presents  tendered  to  the  acceptance  of 
I  rederic  was  a  magnificent  service  of  the  purest  crystal 
glass,  from  the  furnaces  of  Murano,  long  the  chief  empo- 
rium of  that  once  rare  and  difficult  manufacture.  The  em- 
peror, who  weighed  gifts  by  other  standards  than  those  of 
tast^  and  beauty,  was  disappointed  in  the  material.  He 
made  a  sign  to  the  court  jester  who  accompanied  him,  and 
the  adroit  knave,  as  if  inadvertently  stumbling  against  the 
table,  overset  and  shattered  the  frail  vases  with  which  it  was 
covered.  "  Had  they  been  of  gold  or  silver,"  was  fhe  sordid 
and  unmannerly  comment  of  the  prince,  « they  would  not 
have  been  thus  easily  broken."+ 

The  lingering  hostilities  with  Sforza  were  terminated  to 

A.  D.     "J"^"^'  advantage  by  a  treaty  concluded  at  Lodi  in 

1454.    the  spring  of  1454,  in  which  he  was  acknowledged 

Duke  of  Milan.     This  peace  was  no  doubt  accele- 

*  Lib.  viii,  p.  igg. 

t  The  visit  of  Frederic  is  described  by  Sannto,  av.  Murat  xxil   1 U^ 

w'in^H ^^''-  "'•  ''\ ' '  P-  «^0.  and  P.  Justiniani  ?£.  viU  p  m     4L 

S  «Tn  /.  e>^«n  above  .ve  have  not  traced  beyoud  LauJ^errVol  viL 

lib.  XXV.  p.  41,  and  Daru,  vol.  ii.  lib.  xvi.  p.  549.  ^^^^K'"* '^o'- vii. 


NEGOTIATIONS    WITH    THE    TURKS. 


n 


Taled  by  the  fearful  state  of  the  East ;  for  all  Christendom 
had  been  shaken  to  its  base  by  the  overwhelmitig  triumph 
of  the  Turks,  and  their  establishment  in  permanent 
dominion  at  Constantinople  upon  the  ruins  of  the  i^eo 
Greek  empire.  Even  during  his  preparation  for  the 
siege  of  the  imperial  city,  the  second  Mahomet  had  clearly 
evinced  that  his  sword  was  little  prepared  to  respect  neu- 
trality ;  and  the  wreck  of  a  Venetian  galley,  which  he  sank 
with  a  single  bullet  for  infringing  his  blockade  of  the 
Thracian  Strait,  and  the  mouldering  bones  of  her  com- 
mander whom  he  impaled,  and  of  thirty  of  her  crew  whom 
he  beheaded,  fearfully  attested  the  vengeance  of  the  barba- 
rian.* Among  the  40,000  Christians  who  perished  in  the 
last  memorable  and  fatal  assault  of  Constantinople,  many 
of  noble  Venetian  descent  were  to  be  counted  ;  their  hailo 
was  dragged  from  his  peaceful  residence  in  Pera,  and  mas- 
sacred in  cold  blood  after  the  storm ;  and,  in  the  pillage 
and  confiscation  which  ensued,  the  loss  of  the  republic  was 
estimated  at  200,000  ducats.  Far,  however,  from  being 
inspired  with  the  generous  zeal  which  the  holy  see  endea- 
voured, and  in  some  instances  not  unsuccessfully,  to  re- " 
kindle  against  the  infidels,  Venice  was  the  first  Christian 
power  which  sought  accommodation  with  Mahomet.  Re- 
sentment was  swallowed  up  by  tenor  or  by  avarice  ;  and 
the  merchant-queen,  in  order  to  preserve  inviolate  her  Le- 
vantine commerce  and  her  settlements  in  the  Archipelago, 
was  content  to  humble  herself  as  the  earliest  suppliant  at 
the  footstool  of  the  sultan.  Her  embassy  was  re- 
ceived  with  favour;  she  was  permitted  to  ransom  i^cj 
her  captives,  to  re-establish  her  factories  in  Pera, 
once  again  to  waft  riches  in  her  trnders  to  the  ports  of  the 
empire,  and  to  retain,  as  in  the  times  of  the  Palseologi,  the 
right  of  administering  justice  by  jier  own  magistrates  to 
her  own  residents.  In  one  object  of  negotiation  she  failed. 
The  seamless  vesture  of  the  Redeemer  was  still  found,  or 
supposed  to  be  found,  in  the  reliquaries  of  Constantinople, 
and  the  great  price  of  10,000  ducats  was  tendered  for  it  by 
Vepice,  and  refused  by  the  unbelievers. 

But  a  few  year*  before  this  holy  purchase  was  contem- 

*  Gibbon,  eh.  Ixviii.  vol.  xii.  p.  194.  We  have  referred  to  his  autho- 
rities in  vain ;  but  Sanuto  has  mentioned  the  Impalement  of  the  Venetiaa 
•aptain,  op.  Marat,  xxij.  1150. 


72       SACRED  TREASURE  PLUNDEREl>r 

plated,  the  precious  hoard  of  similar  treasures  already 
Aqq'    possessed  by  the  republic  had  narrowly  escaped  dis- 

persion.  Among  the  suite  of  a  prince  of  the  house 
of  Este,  indulged,  according  to  custom,  with  an  inspection 
of  the  wonders  of  the  treasury  of  St.  Mark*s,  was  a  Can- 
dian  named  Stammato,  in  whose  bosom  the  sacred  spectacle 
awakened  more  desire  than  veneration.  Watching  his  op- 
portunity, and  closely  noticing  the  localities  of  the  spot, 
this  ingenious  plunderer  secreted  himself  behind  an  altar 
in  the  body  of  the  cathedral,  and  when  discovered  in  this 
first  hiding-place  by  a  priest,  obtained  fresh  access  by  means 
of  false  keys.  After  numerous  difficulties,  and  by  the  labour 
of  many  successive  nights,  he  removed  one  compartment 
of  the  marble  panelling  which  girded  the  lower  part  of  the 
treasur}'.  Having  thus  gained  access  at  will  to  its  interior, 
he  carefully  replaced  the  panel,  leaving  it  removable  at  plea- 
sure ;  and,  renewing  his  nightly  visits,  he  selected,  without 
fear  and  without  suspicion,  such  portions  of  the  entire  spoil 
at  his  command  as  most  gratihed  his  fancy.  It  was  doubt- 
less a  lust  for  gold  which  allured  him  in  the  first  instance 
to  the  beretta  of  the  doge,  studded  with  gems  of  inestimable 
price  ;  but  nothing  short  of  an  insatiate  love  of  virtu  could 
have  prompted  him  to  secure  the  accredited  horn  of  a  uni- 
corn, too  cumbrous  for  removal  while  entire,  and  requiring 
the  tedious  process  of  the  saw  before  it  could  be  borne  away. 
More  fortunate  than  the  Egyptian  robber,  whose  bold  ex- 
ploit, perpetrated  under  very  similar  circumstances,  must 
have  already  suggested  itself  to  every  reader  of  Herodotus,* 
Stammato,  but  for  his  vanity,  might  have  enriched  himself, 
and  escaped  to  his  native  shores  unharmed  and  undetected. 
Simply  to  possess  this  boundless  wealth,  however,  appeared 
but  little  in  his  eyes  ;  for  its  full  enjoyment  it  became  neces- 
sary that  another  should  know  of  his  possession.  Accord- 
ingly, having  exacted  a  solemn  oath  of  secrecy  from  one  of 
his  countrymen,  Grioni,  a  Candian  of  noble  birth,  he  led 
him  to  an  obscure  lodging, t  and  poured  before  the  astonished 
eyes  of  his  companion  the  dazzling  fruits  of  his  plunder. 
While  the  robber  watched  the  countenance  of  his  friend,  he 
mistrusted  the  expression  which  passed  across  it ;  and  the 

♦  II.  121. 

t  Perhaps  the  site  may  still  be  traced  ;  Sanuio  notes  it  with  precision, 
titUa  Calle  da  Casa  Salomone  a  Sta.  Maria  Formosa. 


FRANCESCO   FOSCARI. 


73 


stiletto  was  already  in  his  grasp  to  ensure  his  safety,  when 
Grioni  averted  the  peril  by  stating  that  the  first  sight  of  so 
fiplendid  a  prize  had  welhiigh  overpowered  him.  As  a 
token  of  benevolence,  perhaps  as  a  bribe,  Stammato  pre- 
sented his  unwilling  accessary  with  a  carbuncle,  which  after- 
ward blazed  m  the  front  of  the  ducal  bonnet ;  and  Grioni, 
seeking  excuse  for  a  short  absence,  and  bearing  in  his  hand 
this  well-known  and  incontestable  evidence  of  his  truth, 
hastened  to  the  palace  and  denounced  the  criminal.  The 
booty,  which  amounted  to  the  scarcely  credible  sum  of 
2,000,000  ducats  of  gold,  had  not  yet  been  missed,  and  was 
recovered  undiminished.  Stammato  expiated  his  offence 
between  the  two  columns  ;  the  rope  with  which  he  was 
executed  having  previously  been  gilt,  in  order  that,  like 
Crassus,  he  might  exhibit  in  his  death  a  memorial  of  the 
very  passion  which  had  seduced  him  to  destruction.* 

The  reign  of  Francesco  Foscari  had  now  been  prolonged 
to  the  unusual  period  of  thirty-four  years,  and  these 
years  had  m  one  respect  at  least  fully  verified  the  ^*  Pi 
prophecy  hazarded  by  his  predecessor  Moncenigo.  ^^^'* 
They  were  marked  by  almost  continual  warfare  ;  during 
which,  however,  the  courage,  the  firmness,  and  the  sagacity 
of  the  illustrious  doge  had  won  four  rich  provinces  for  his 
country,  and  increased  her  glory  not  less  than  her  dominion. 
If  we  were  to  abide  by  the  smooth  narrative  of  the  histori- 
ographer Sabellico,  we  might  believe  that  the  last  days  of 
this  distinguished  prince  were  given  to  a  voluntary  and 
honourable  repose  ;  and  that,  having  attained  the  great  age 
of  84  years,  and  being  debarred  by  infirmity  from  dedicating 
himself  to  state  affairs,  he  resigned  the  sceptre  to  a  younger 
hand.  We  are  told  also  that  the  gray-haired  prince,  having 
laid  aside  the  insignia  of  sovereignty  and  retired  to  hig 
former  level  of  nobility,  and  retaining  to  the  last,  although 
in  a  shattered  frame,  the  unextinguished  vigour  of  a  gene- 
rous spirit,  died  a  few  days  after  the  new  accession.  By  a 
decree  of  the  council,  the  trappings  of  supreme  power  of 
which  he  had  divested  himself  while  living,  were  restored 
to  him  when  dead ;  and  he  was  interred,  with  ducal  mag- 

'  *  Sanuto,  ap.  Murat.  xxli.  11 32.  Sabellico,  Dec.  111.  lib.  vi.  p.  677.  P: 
Jnstiniani,  lib.  viii.  p.  1^.  It  is  only  by  the  last-named  writer  that  the 
gilding  of  the  rope  is  mentioned ;  Sanuto  gives  the  official  process  drawa 
up  by  the  Ten. 

Vol.  II.— G 


4 


74 


FRANCESCO    FOSCARI. 


nificeuce,  in  the  Church  of  the  Minorites  ;  presenting  the 
first  instance  on  record,  since  the  privilege  of  associating  a 
joint  chief  magistrate  had  been  abolished,  in  which  one  doge 
mourned  at  the  funeral  of  another.*  Such  is  the  tale  au- 
thorized by  the  Council  of  Ten,  and  which  they  commanded 
to  be  enrolled  as  history ;  but  a  darker,  and,  it  is  to  be 
feared,  a  truer  version  is  to  be  drawn  from  sources  more 
worthy  of  confidence  ;  and  to  the  English  reader  it  is  one 
of  the  few  portions  of  the  Romance  of  Venetian  Hibtory 
which  does  not  bring  with  it  the  zest  of  novelty. 

Ardent,  enterprising,  and  ambitious  of  the  glory  of  con- 
quest, it  was  not  without  much  opposition  that  Foscari  had 
obtained  the  dogeship ;  and  he  soon  discovered  that  the 
throne  which  he  had  coveted  with  so  great  earnestness  was 
far  from  being  a  seat  of  repose.  Accordingly,  at  the  peace 
of  Ferrara,  which  in  1433  succeeded  a  calamitous  war,  fore- 
seeing the  approach  of  fresh  and  still  greater  troubles,  and 
wearied  by  the  factions  which  ascribed  all  disasters  to  the 
prince,  he  tendered  his  abdication  to  the  senate,  and  was 
refused.  A  hke  offer  was  renewed  by  him  when  nine  years 
farther  experience  of  sovereignty  had  confirmed  his  former 
estimate  of  its  cares  ;  and  the  council,  on  this  second  occa- 
sion, much  more  from  adherence  to  existing  institutions 
than  from  any  attachment  to  the  person  of  the  doge,  accom- 
panied their  negative  with  the  exaction  of  an  oath  that  he 
would  retain  his  burdensome  dignity  for  life.  Too  early, 
alas  !  was  he  to  be  taught  that  life,  on  such  conditions,  was 
the  heaviest  of  curses  !  Three  out  of  his  four  sons  were 
already  dead  ;  to  Giacopo,  the  survivor,  he  looked  for  the 
continuation  of  his  name  and  the  support  of  his  declining 
age  ;  and  from  that  youth's  intermarriage  with  the  illus- 
trious house  of  Contarini,  and  the  popular  joy  with  which, 
it  will  be  remembered,  his  nuptials  were  celebrated,  the 
doge  drew  favourable  auspices  for  future  happiness.  Four 
years,  however,  had  scarcely  elapsed  from  the  conclusion 
of  that  well-omened  marriage,  when  a  series  of  calamities 
began,  from  which  death  g-lone  was  to  relieve  either  the 
son  or  his  yet  more  wretched  father.  In  1445,  Giacopo 
Foscari  was  denounced  to  the  Ten  as  having  received  pres- 
ents from  foreign  potentates,  and  especially  from  Filippo* 


*  Sabellfco,  Dec.  iii.  lib.  viii.  p.  714. 


f 


GIACOPO    FOSCARI. 


•   75 


Maria  Visconti.  The  oflfence,  according  to  the  law,  was 
one  of  the  most  heinous  which  a  noble  could  commit ;  and 
we  have  before  seen,  in  the  proceedings  against  Carlo  Zeno, 
how  wide  a  circle  was  comprehended  by  the  prohibitory  sta- 
tutes. Even  if  Giacopo  were  guiltless  of  infringing  them, 
it  was  not  easy  to  establish  innocence  before  a  Venetian 
tribunal.  Under  the  eyes  of  his  own  father,  compelled  to 
preside  at  the  unnatural  examination,  a  confession  was  ex- 
torted from  the  prisoner  on  the  rack ;  and  from  the  lips  of 
that  father  he  received  the  sentence  which  banished  him  for 
life  to  Napoli  di  Romania,  compelled  him  to  appear  once 
every  day  before  the  governor  of  that  settlement,  and  ad- 
judged him  to  death  if  he  attempted  escape.  On  his 
passage,  severe  illness  delayed  him  at  Trieste  ;  and,  at 
the  especial  prayer  of  the  doge,  a  less  remote  district  was 
assigned  for  his  punishment ;  he  was  permitted  to  reside 
at  Treviso,  and  his  wife  was  allowed  to  participate  his 

exile.  .  r  liiRA 

It  was  in  the  commencement  of  the  winter  of  14oU, 
while  Giacopo  Foscari  rested,  in  comparative  tranquillity, 
within  the  bounds  to  which  he  was  restricted,  that  an  as- 
sassination occurred  in  the  streets  of  Venice.  Hermolao 
Donato,  the  provveditore  whom  Sforza  took  prisoner  at 
Caravagirio,  and  who  now  filled  the  more  important  post  of  a 
chief  of  fhe  Ten,  was  murdered  on  his  return  from  a  sitting 
of  that  council  at  his  own  door  by  unknown  hands.  The 
magnitude  of  the  offence,  and  the  violation  of  the  high 
ditrnity  of  the  Ten,  demanded  a  victim  ;  and  the  coadjutors 
of"  the  slain  magistrate  caught  with  eager  grasp  at  the 
slightest  clew  which  suspicion  could  afford.  A  domestic  m 
the  service  of  Giacopo  Foscari  had  been  seen  in  Venice  on 
the  evening  of  the  murder,  and  on  the  following  morning, 
when  met  in  a  boat  off  Mestre  by  a  chief  of  the  Ten,  and 
asked  "  What  newsl"  he  had  answered  by  reporting  the  as- 
sassination several  hours  before  it  was  generally  known. 
It  might  seem  that  such  frankness  of  itself  disproved  all 
participation  in  the  crime  ;  for  the  author  of  it  was  not 
likely  thus  unseasonably  and  prematurely  to  disclose  its 
committal.  But  the  Ten  thought  differently  ;  and  matters 
which  to  others  bore  conviction  of  innocence,  to  them 
savoured  strongly  of  guUt.  The  servant  was  arrested,  ex- 
amined, and  barbarously  tortured ;  but  even  the  eightieth 


70 


GIACOPO    FOSCARL 


application  of  the  strappado  failed  to  elicit  one  syllable 
which  might  justify  condemnation.  That  Giacopo  Foscari 
had  experienced  the  severity  of  the  council's  judgment, 
and  that  its  jealous  watchfulness  was  daily  imposing  some 
new  restraint  upon  his  father's  authority,  powerfully  ope- 
rated to  convince  the  Ten  that  they  must  themselves  in 
return  be  objects  of  his  deadly  enmity.  Who  else,  they 
Baid,  could  be  more  likely  to  arm  the  hand  of  an  assassin 
against  a  chief  of  the  Ten,  than  one  whom  the  Ten  have 
visited  with  punishment  ]  On  this  unjust  and  unsupported 
surmise,  the  young  Foscari  was  recalled  from  Treviso, 
placed  on  ihe  rack  which  his  servant  had  just  vacated,  tor- 
tured againUn  his  father's  presence,  and  not  absolved 
even  after  h©  resolutely  persisted  in  denying  unto  the  end. 
"  Giacopo  Foscari,"  as  the  memorable  sentence  pronounced 
against  him,  still  existing  among  the  archives  of  Venice,  de- 
clares, "  accused  of  the  murder  of  Hermolao  Donato,  has 
been  arrested  and  examined,  and,  from  the  testimony,  evi- 
dence, and  documents  exhibited,  it  distinctly  appears  that 
he  is  guilty  of  the  aforesaid  crime  ;  nevertheless,  on  account 
of  Jiis  obstinacy,  and  of  enchantments  and  spells  in  his  pos- 
session, of  which  there  are  manifest  proofs,  it  has  not  been 
possible  to  extract  from  him  the  truth  which  is  clear  from 
parole  and  written  evidence  ;  for  while  he  was  on  the  cord 
he  uttered  neither  word  nor  groan,  but  only  murmured 
somewhat  to  himself  indistinctly  and  under  his  breath; 
therefore,  as  the  honour  of  the  state  requires,  he  is  condemned 
to  a  more  distant  banishment  in  Candia."  There,  the 
acuteness  of  his  mental  and  bodily  sufferings  produced 
temporary  loss  of  reason  ;  a  short  abode  in  Venice  was 
permitted  for  its  restoration,  and  he  was  then  remanded  to 
his  former  exile.  Will  it  be  credited  that  a  distinct  proof 
of  his  innocence,  obtained  by  the  discovery  of  the  real  as- 
sassin, wrought  no  change  in  his  unjust  and  cruel  sentence — 
that  he  was  enjoined  still  to  remain  at  Canea,  although 
Nicolo  Erizzo,  a  noble  infamous  for  other  crimes  which 
Donato  had  punished,  confessed  to  the  priest  who  ministered 
to  him  on  his  death-bed,  that  it  was  beneath  his  dagger  the 
murdered  counsellor  had  fallen  1 

The  wrongs,  however,  which  Giacopo  Foscari  endured 
had  by  no  means  chilled  the  passionate  love  with  which  he 
continued  to  regard  his  ungrateful  country.    He  was  now 


GIACOPO    FOSCARI. 


77 


excluded  from  all  communication  with  his  family,  torn  from 
the  wife  of  his  affections,  debarred  from  the  society  of  his 
children,  hopeless  of  again  embracing  those  parents  who 
had  already  for  outstripped  the  natural  term  of  human  ex- 
istence ;  and  to  his  imagination,  for  ever  centering  itself 
upon  the  single  desire  of  return,  life  presented  no  other 
object  deserving  pursuit ;  till,  for  the  attainment  of  this 
wish,  life  itself  at  length  appeared  to  be  scarcely  more  than 
an  adequate  sacrifice.  Preyed  upon  by  tliis  fever  of  the 
heart,  after  six  years'  unavailing  suit  for  a  remission  of 
punishment,  hi  the  summer  of  1456  he  addressed  a  letter  to 
tbe  Duke  of  Milan,  imploring  his  good  offices  with  the 
senate.  That  letter,  purposely  left  open  in  a  place  obvi- 
ous to  the  spies  by  whom  even  in  his  exile  he  was  sur- 
rounded, and  afterward  intrusted  to  an  equally  treacherous 
hand  for  delivery  to  Sforza,  was  conveyed,  as  the  writer 
intended,  to  the  Council  of  Ten ;  and  the  result,  which 
equally  fulfilled  his  expectation,  was  a  hasty  summons  to 
Venice  to  answer  for  the  heavy  crime  of  soliciting  foreign 
intercession  with  his  native  government. 

For  a  third  time,  Francesco  Foscari  listened  to  the  accu- 
sation of  his  son— for  the  first  time  he  heard  him  openly 
avow  the  charge  of  his  accusers,  and  calmly  state  that  his 
offence,  such  as  it  was,  had  been  committed  designedly  and 
aforethought,  with  the  sole  object  of  detection,  in  order  that 
he  might  be  brought  back,  even  as  a  malefactor,  to  Venice. 
This  prompt  and  voluntar>'  declaration,  however,  was  not 
sufficient  to  decide  the  nice  hesitation  of  his  judges.     Guilt, 
they  said,  might  be  too  easily  admitted  as  well  as  too  per- 
tinaciously denied;   and  the    same   process   therefore  by 
which  at  other  times  confession  was  wrested   from   the 
hardened  criminal  might  now  compel  a  too  facile  self-accuser 
to  retract  his  acknowledgment.     The  father  again  looked 
on  while  his  son  was  raised  on  the  accursed  cord  no  less 
than  thirty  times,  in  order  that,  under  his  agony,  he  might 
be  induced  to  utter  a  lying  declaration  of  innocence.     But 
this  cruelty  was  exercised  in  vain  ;  and  when  nature  gave 
way  the  sufferer  was  carried  to  the  apartments  of  the  doge, 
torn,  bleeding,  senseless,  and  dislocated,  but  firm  in  his 
original  purpose.     Nor  had  his  persecutors  relaxed  mthetrs ; 
they  renewed  his  sentence  of  exile,  and  added  that  its  first 
year  should  be  passed  in  prison.     Before  he  embarked,  one 

G2 


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(Mi 


■s 

i! 
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i 


78 


FEUD    BETWEEN 


FOSCARI   AND    LOREDANO. 


79 


Interview  was  permitted  with  his  family.  The  doge,  as 
Sanuto,  perhaps  unconscious  of  the  pathos  of  his  simplicity, 
has  narrated,  was  an  aged  and  decrepit  man,  who  walked 
witli  the  support  of  a  crutch,  and  when  he  came  into  the 
chamber,  he  spake  with  irreat  firmness,  so  that  it  might 
seem  it  was  not  his  son  whom  he  was  addressing,  but  it 
was  his  son — his  only  son.  "  Go,  Giacopo,"  was  his  reply, 
when  prayed  for  the  last  time  to  solicit  mercy ;  "  Go,  Gi- 
acopo, submit  to  the  will  of  your  country,  and  seek  nothing 
further."  This  effort  of  self-restraint  was  beyond  the 
powers,  not  of  the  old  man's  enduring  spirit,  but  of  his 
exhausted  frame  ;  and  when  he  retired  he  swooned  in  the 
arms  of  his  attendants.  Giacopo  reached  his  Candian  pri- 
son, and  was  shortly  afterward  released  by  death. 

Francesco  Foscari,  far  less  happy  in  his  survival,  con- 
tinued to  live  on,  but  it  was  in  sorrow  and  feebleness  which 
prevented  attention  to  the  duties  of  his  high  office  :  he 
remained  secluded  in  his  chamber,  never  went  abroad,  and 
absented  himself  even  from  the  sittings  of  the  councils. 
No  practical  inconvenience  could  result  from  this  want  of 
activity  in  the  chief  magistrate  ;  for  the  constitution  suffi- 
ciently provided  against   any  accidental  suspension  of  his 
personal  functions,  and  his  place  in  council   and  on  state 
occasions  was  supplied  by  an  authorized  deputy.     Some 
indulgence,  moreover,  might  be  thought  due  to  the  extreme 
age  and  domestic  griefs  of  Foscari;  since  they  appeared  to 
promise  that  any  favour  which  might  be  granted  would  be 
claimed  but  for  a  short  period.     But  yet  further  trials  were 
in  store.     Giacopo  Loredano,  who  in  1467  was  appointed 
one  of  the  chiefs  of  the  Ten,  belonged  to  a  family  between 
which  and  that  of  Foscari  an  hereditary  feud  had  long  ex- 
isted.    His  uncle  Pietro,  after  gaining  high  distinction  in 
active  service,  as  Admiral  of  Venice,  on  his  return  to  the 
capital,  headed   the   political   faction  which   opposed   the 
warlike  projects  of  the  doge  ;  divided  applause  with  him 
by  his  eloquence  in  the  councils  ;  and  so  far  extended  his 
influence  as  frequently  to  obtain  majorities  in  their  divisions. 
In  an  evil  moment  of  impatience,  Foscari  once  publicly 
avowed  in  the  senate,  that  so  long  as  Pietro  Loredano  lived 
he  should  never  feel  himself  really  to  be  doge.     Not  long 
afterward,  the  admiral,  engaged  as  provvedifore  with  one 
of  the  annies  opposed  to  Filippo-Maria,  died  suddenly  at  a 


military  banquet  given  after  a  short  suspension  of  arms ; 
and  the  evil-omened  words  of  Foscari  were  connected  with 
his  disease.  It  was  remarked  also  that  his  brother  Marco 
Loredano,  one  of  the  avvogadoriy  died,  in  a  somewhat  simi- 
lar manner,  while  engaged  in  instituting  a  legal  process 
against  a  son-in-law  of  the  doge  for  peculation  upon  the 
state.  The  foul  rumours  partially  excited  by  these  unto- 
ward coincidences,  for  they  appear  in  truth  to  have  been  no 
more,  met  with  little  acceptation,  and  were  rejected  or  for- 
gotten.except  by  a  single  bosom.  Giacopo,  the  son  of  one, 
the  nephew  of  the  other  deceased  Loredano,  gave  full  credit 
to  the  accusation,  inscribed  on  his  fnthcr's  tomb  at  Sta. 
Elena  that  he  died  by  poison,  bound  himself  by  a  solemn 
vow  to  the  most  deadly  and  unrelenting  pursuit  of  revenge, 
and  fulfilled  that  vow  to  the  uttermost. 

During  thf:  hfetime  of  Pietro  Loredano,  Foscari,  willing 
to  tenninate  the  feud  by  domestic  alliance,  had  tendered  the 
hand  of  his  daughter  to  one  of  his  rival's  sons.  The  youth 
saw  his  proffered  bride,  openly  exj)rcssed  dislike  of  her 
person,  and  rejected  her  with  marked  discourtesy  ;  so  that, 
in  the  quarrel  thus  heightened,  Foscari  mi^ht  now  conceive 
himself  to  be  the  most  injured  party.  Not  such  was  the 
impression  of  Giacopo  Loredano  ;  year  after  year  he  grimly 
awaited  the  season  most  fitted  for  his  unbending  purpose  ; 
and  it  arrived  at  length  when  he  found  himself  in  authority 
among  the  Ten.  Relying  upon  the  ascendency  belonging 
to  that  high  station,  he  hazarded  a  proposal  for  the  deposi- 
tion of  the  aged  doge,  which  was  at  first,  however,  received 
with  coldness  ;  for  those  who  had  twice  before  refused  a 
voluntary  abdication,  shrank  from  the  strange  contradiction 
of  now  demanding  one  on  compulsion.  A  junta  was  re- 
quired to  assist  in  their  deliberations,  and  among  the  asses- 
sors elected  by  the  great  council,  in  complete  ignorance  of 
the  purpose  for  which  they  were  needed,  was  Marco  Fos- 
cari, a  procuratore  of  St.  Mark,  and  brother  of  the  doge 
him^lf.  The  Ten  perceived  that  to  reject  his  assistance 
might  excite  suspicion,  while  to  procure  his  apparent  appro- 
bation would  give  a  show  of  impartiality  to  their  process ; 
his  nomination,  therefore,  was  accepted,  but  he  was  re- 
moved to  a  separate  apartment,  excluded  from  the  debate, 
Bworn  to  keep  that  exclusion  secret,  and  yet  compelled  to 
Assent  to  the  final  decree  in  the  discussion  of  which  he  had 


>^ 


i 


I 


80 


DEPOSITION    OF    FOSCARI. 


not  been  allowed  to  participate.  The  council  sat  during 
eight  days  and  nearly  as  many  nights  ;  and  at  the  close  of 
their  protracted  meetingfj  a  committee  was  deputed  to  re- 
quest the  abdication  of  the  doge.  The  old  man  received 
them  with  surprise,  but  with  composure,  and  replied  that  he 
had  sworn  not  to  abdicate,  and  therefore  must  maintain  his 
faith.  It  was  not  possible  that  he  could  resign  ;  but  if  it 
appeared  fit  to  their  wisdom  that  he  sliould  cease  to  be  doge, 
thry  had  it  in  their  power  to  make  a  proposal  to  that  elTect 
to  the  Great  Council.  It  was  far,  however,  from  the  inten- 
tion of  the  Ten  to  Ru]>ject  themselves  to  the  chances  of  de- 
hate  in  that  larger  body  ;  and  assuming  to  their  own  magis- 
tracy a  prerogative  not  attributed  to  it  by  the  constitution, 
they  discharged  Foscari  from  his  oath,  declared  his  olficc 
vacant,  as.signed  to  him  a  pension  of  2000  ducats,  and  en- 
joined him  to  quit  tlie  palace  witliin  three  days,  on  pain  of 
confiscation  of  all  his  property.  Loredano,  to  whom  the 
right  b;^longed,  according  to  the  weekly  routine  of  office, 
enjoyed  the  barbarous  satisfaction  of  presenting  this  decree 
with  his  own  hand.  "  Who  aro  you,  signor  ]"  inquired  the 
doge  of  another  chief  of  the  Ten  who  accompanied  hiiu, 
and  whose  prrson  he  did  not  immediately  recognise.  "  I 
am  a  son  of  Marco  I\Iemmo."  —"Ah,  your  father,"  replied 
Foscari,  "  is  my  friend."  Then  declaring  that  he  yielded 
willinir  obedience  to  the  most  excellent  Council  of  Ten,  and 
laving  aside  the  ducal  bonnet  and  robes,  he  surrendered  his 
ring  of  office,  which  was  broken  in  his  presence.  On  the 
morrow,  when  he  prepared  to  leave  the  palace,  it  was  sug- 
gested to  him  that  he  should  retire  by  a  private  staircase, 
and  thus  avoid  the  concourse  assembled  in  the  court-yard 
below.  With  calm  ditrnity  he  refused  the  proposition  ;  he 
would  descend,  he  said,  by  no  other  than  the  self-same  steps 
by  which  he  had  mounted  thirty  years  before.  Accordingly, 
supported  by  his  brother,  he  slowly  traversed  the  Giant's 
Stairs,  and  at  their  foot,  leaning  on  his  staif,  and  turning 
round  to  the  palace,  he  accompanied  his  last  look  to  it  with 
these  parting  words,  "  My  services  established  me  within 
your  walls  ;  it  is  the  malice  of  my  enemies  which  tears  me 
from  them !" 

It  was  to  the  olio-archv  alone  that  Foscari  was  obnoxious  : 
by  the  populace  he  had  always  been  beloved,  and  strange  in- 
deed would  it  have  been  had  he  now  failed  to  excite  their 


HIS   DEATH. 


81 


sympathy.  But  even  the  regrets  of  the  people  of  Venice 
were  fettered  by  their  tyrants;  and  whatever  pity  they 
might  secretly  continue  to  cherish  for  their  wronged  and 
humiliated  prince,  all  expression  of  it  was  silenced  by  a  per- 
emptory decree  of  the  council,  forbidding  any  mention  of 
his  name,  and  annexing  death  as  a  penalty  to  disobedience. 
On  the  fifth  day  after  Foscari's  deposiiirn  Pascale  Mali- 
PiERi  was  elected  doge.  The  dethroned  prince  heard  the 
announcement  of  his  successor  by  the  bell  of  the  Campa- 
nile^ suppressed  his  agitation,  but  ruptured  a  blood-vessel  in 
the  exertion,  and  died  in  a  few  hours.  It  is  said  that  when 
the  close  of  this  piteous  tragedy  Avas  declared  to  Loredano, 
who,  like  most  other  nobles  of  his  time,  was  engaged  in 
commerce,  he  took  down  one  of  his  legcrs  and  turned  to  a 
blank  leaf.  Opposite  to  that  page  was  an  entry  in  his  own 
writing  among  his  list  of  debtors,  "  Francesco  Foscari  for 
the  death  of  my  father  and  my  uncle."  The  balance  was 
now  adjusted  ;  he  wrote  on  the  other  side.  "He  has  paid 
me,"  and  closed  the  account  of  blood  !  ^ 


*  Sanuto  {ap.  Murat.  xxii.)  is  our  main  authority  for  the  sad  talc  of  the 
Foscari,  and  it  may  be  right  to  notice  a  few  tnlliiig  particulars  in  whicU 
we  have  differed  from  some  modern  writers  of  eminence. 

ftl.  de  Sismondi  (7?f;). //a/,  x.  41)  places  tlie  doge's  second  wish  t« 
abdicate  after  the  condenmalion  of  liis  son  in  1450,  and  calls  him  Sfi 
years  of  age  at  the  tnne  of  his  death. — (46.)  Sanuio  fixes  that  offor  of 
reoignation  in  1142,  and  the  epitaph  on  Foscari's  monument  declares 
him  to  have  died  at  84. 

For  the  fine  incident— r  hapagata—we  are  indebted  to  Daru  (ii.  520), 
who  cites  Palaz/.i  (Fasti  Jhtcales)  and  Viundolo,  by  neither  of  whom 
have  we  been  able  to  find  ihe  fact  supported.  Daru  also  states  Giacopo 
Loredano  to  have  been  the  son  of  Pielro.— (528.)  By  Vettor  Satidi  (/</;. 
viii.  p.  710)  he  is  called  his  7iephcti\  The  pension  assigned  by  the  Ten 
was  2000  ducats,  the  time  for  quitting  the  pa:acr.  three  days,  according  to 
Sanuto;  Daru  makes  the  former  l!;oii,  the  latter  eight  :'but  he  had  ac- 
cess to  a  manuscript  document,  among  ilie  archives  of  Venice,  appa- 
rently of  high  authority,  and  this  may  explain  his  variations. 

Lord  Byron,  in  his  Tragedy,  The  Too  Foscari,  a  play  in  which  the 
ruggedness  of  execution  is  far  from  being  compensated  by  beauties  of 
cnnceptioty  has  not  ventured  upon  further  deviation  from  historical 
truth  than  is  fully  authorized  by  the  license  of  the  drama.  We  may 
remark,  however,  that  there  is  no  voucher  by  which  Loredano  is  proved 
to  have  been  an  agent  in  the  persecution  of  Giacopo  Foscari  in  1456,  and 
that  he  did  not  become  a  Capo  de'  Died  till  the  following  year ;  that  Gi- 
acopo's  death  occurred,  not  at  Venice,  but  at  Canca;  that  fifteen  months 
elapsed  between  his  last  condemnation  and  his  father's  deposition  ;  that 
afler  he  had  been  tortured  he  was  removed  to  the  ducal  apartments,  not 
to  one  of  the  pozzi;  and  that  the  death  of  the  elder  Foscari  took  place, 


I 


i 


82 


INQUISITION   OF    STATE. 


INQUISITION    OF   STATE. 


83 


To  the  reign  of  Foscari  may  now  be  attributed  with  cer- 
tainty the  organization  of  that  portentous  tribunal  com- 
posed of  the  three  inquisitors  of  the  state.  The  origin  of 
that  body,  no  less  than  its  proceedings,  was  long  involved  in 
hopeless  mystery,  till  the  laborious  research  of  the  late 
Comte  Daru  unrolled  the  manuscript  statutes  in  the  Royal 
Library  at  Paris  ;  and  brought  to  light  a  decree  of  the  Grand 
Council  also,  bearing  date  the  16th  June,  1454,  by  which 
the  Ten,  in  consetiuence  of  the  dilliculty  found  in  assem- 
bling their  members  with  suliicient  promptitude  on  every  oc- 
casion on  which  their  services  might  be  requisite,  are  au- 
thorized to  choose  three  persons  under  the  above  title  ;  two 
(/  Neri)  from  their  own  council,  one  (7/  Rosso)  from  that 
of  the  doge  ;  the  former  consequently  to  exercise  their  func- 
tions for  a  year,  the  latter  for  eight  months,  the  periods  of 
their  respective  oriijinal  counsellorships.  The  powers 
granted  by  the  Ten  are  briefly  stated  in  a  second  decree  of 
their  own,  passed  three  days  afterward.  By  that  ordinance 
the  inquisitors  were  invested  with  all  the  plenary  authority 
possessed  by  their  electors,  over  every  person  of  what  de- 
gree soever,  in  the  republic,  be  he  citizen,  noble,  magistrate, 
ecclesiastic,  or  even  one  of  the  Ten  themselves  ;  over  all 
individuals,  in  a  word,  who  should  in  any  way  expose  them- 
selves to  merited  punishment.  The  penalties  which  they 
might  inflict  were  left  solely  to  their  own  discretion,  and  ex- 
tended to  death,  either  by  public  or  secret  execution.  Each 
member  singly  might  take  all  steps  preparatory  to  judgment, 
but  a  dcrinitive  sentence  could  be  pronounced  only  by  their 
unanimous  voices.  The  terrific  dungeons,  whether  under 
the  leaden  roofs  (/  Piomhi),  or  beneath  the  level  of  the 
canals,  in  the  hollowed  walls  of  the  palace  (/  Pozzi),  were 
placed  at  their  disi)osal ;  they  held  the  keys  of  the  treasury 
of  the  Ten  without  being  accountable  for  the  sums  which 

not  at  the  palace,  but  in  his  own  house ;  not  immediately  on  his  descent 
from  the  Giant's  Stairs,  but  tive  days  afterward. 

Mr.  Rogers,  in  the  notes  upon  his  very  striking  version  of  this  melan- 
choly story  in  his  Itah/,  has  fallen  into  two  sligiit  errors,  which  we  might 
pass  unnoticed  if  it  were  not  for  tlie  deserved  popularity  of  the  poem. 
Loredano,  he  says,  was  "one  of  the  invisible  three," that  is,  one  of  the 
state  inquisitors.  There  is  not  any  ground  for  this  assertion,  and  from 
the  constitution  of  tliat  dark  tribunal,  none  of  the  inquisitors  were  ever 
known.  Again  he  says,  and  refers  to  Sanuto  as  his  authority,  that  the 
doge  Foscari  died  while  at  mass ;  Sanuto  only  says  that  Maiipieri,  his 
successor,  was  at  mass  when  he  received  the  account  of  Foscari's  death. 


they  might  draw  from  it ;  all  governors,  commanders,  and 
ambassadors  on  foreign  stations  were  enjoined  implicit  obe- 
dience to  their  mandates  ;  they  were  )>erniitted  to  frame 
their  own  statutes,  with  the  power  of  allering,  rescinding, 
or  adding  to  them  from  time  to  time ;  and  eUcctually  to 
guard  against  the  chief  hazard  by  which  their  secrecy  might 
be  violated,  no  jiopaUsta,  ihixt  is,  no  one  who  had  an  eccle- 
siastic amonjj  his  near  connexions,  orwns  at  all  interested 
in  the  court  of  Rome,  was  eligible  as  an  Inquisitor  of  IState, 
even  although  he  might  belong  to  the  Ten. 

Of  a  tribunal  whose  chief  elements  were  secrecy  and  ter- 
ror, little  that  was  authentic  could  l)e  known,  still  less  was 
likely  to  be  spoken.  By  foreign  writers,  accordingly,  it  has 
for  the  most  part  been  neglected  or  misrej)resented  ;  by  na- 
tive Venetians  it  has  been  approached  with  wary  steps,  and 
quitted  with  trembling  haste  ;  as  if  those  who  lingered 
within  its  precincts  dreaded  to  become  entangled  within  its 
grasp.  The  chief  civil  histonan  of  Venice  speaks  briefly 
of  its  mysterious  constitution,  of  the  veneration  due  to  it 
by  all  citizens,  of  the  breach  of  duty  which  any  attempt  to 
penetrate  iis  obscurity  would  involve  ;  and  he  concludes  by 
declaring  "  with  sincerity  aiul  simplicity,  to  the  glory  of 
this  august  tribunal,  that  if  Rome,  so  admirable  in  the  rest 
of  her  pohty,  had  established  a  similar  magistracy,  she 
would  still  exist,  secure  from  the  corruptions  which  occa- 
sioned her  dissolution."*  A  slight  glance,  for  we  can  at- 
tempt no  more,  at  a  few  of  the  principal  enactments  of  this 
most  atrocious  court,  will  evince  the  due  value  which  may 
be  placed  on  the  above  panegyric.  These  decrees  are  the 
only  ordinances  reduced  to  writing  in  which  a  legislative 
body  has  ever  dared  to  erect  a  code  upon  the  avowed  basis 
of  perfidy  and  assassination.  Never  yet  did  the  principle 
of  ill  establish  so  free  a  traffic  for  the  interchange  of  crime, 
so  unrestricted  a  mart  in  which  mankind  might  barter  their 
iniquity ;  never  was  the  committal  of  certain  and  irreme- 
diable evil  so  fully  authorized  for  the  chance  of  questionable 
and  ambiguous  good ;  never  was  every  generous  emotion 
of  moral  instinct,  every  accredited  maxim  of  social  duty  so 
debased  and  subjugated  to  the  baneful  yoke  of  an  assumed 
political  expediency.     The  statutes  of  the  Venetian  Inqui- 

*  V.  Sandi,  Storia  Civile  di  VtneziOj  vol.  ii.  p.  ii.  1.  8.  p.  5. 


i 


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If 


**^'i*f%fe,; 


^*<^S%6, 


84 


STATUTES  OF 


THE  INQUISITION  OF  STATE. 


85 


sition  of  State,  now  exposed  to  the  general  eye,  exceed 
every  other  product  of  human  wickedness  in  premeditated, 
deliberate,  systematic,  unmixed,  undissembled  flagitious- 
less. 

This  code,  entirely  written  in  the  autograph  of  one  of  the 
inquisitors,  was  deposited  in  a  casket  of  which  each  of  the 
three  magistrates  by  turns  kept  the  key.  In  tlie  outset  it 
declared  that  every  process  of  the  tribunal  was  for  ever  to 
be  preserved  secret,  and  that  no  inquisitor  should  betray 
that  he  was  such  by  any  outward  sign,  but  everywhere  con- 

^jij^  stantly  maintain  the  character  of  a  merely  private  individual ; 

^^  since  the  advantage  with  which  the  state  could  be  served 

was  considered  to  be  strictly  proportionate  to  the  mystery 
in  which  this  tribunal  was  enveloped.  Hence  its  citations, 
arrests,  and  other  instruments  were  to  be  issued  in  the  name 
of  the  Ten,  its  examinations  conducted,  its  judgments  pro- 
nounced by  the  mouths  of  secretaries.  Even  if  an  accused 
party  after  arrest  should  escape  condemnation  (a  rare 
event  !)  he  was  to  learn  his  acquittal  and  release,  not  by 
a  direct  sentence,  but  by  a  surly  rebuke  from  his  jailer 
— "  What  are  you  doing  there  ?  out  with  you  !"  was  the 
greeting  with  which  the  turnkey  entered  the  cell  of  a  pris- 
oner about  to  be  restored  to  liberty.  Spies  (jaccordanti^  a 
smooth  and  gentle  title)  were  to  be  procured  with  the  ut- 
most diligence  from  every  class,  artisans,  citizens,  nobles, 
and  religious  ;  and  their  rewards  w^ere  to  be  adjusted  in 
such  manner  as  might  rather  perpetually  excite  than  abso- 
lutely satiate  expectation.  The  nice  sensitiveness  of  honour 
which  this  Judas-band  might  be  supposed  to  cherish,  was 
respected  with  peculiar  delicacy.  Should  they  be  taunted 
{moteggiati)  by  any  one  in  terms  which  might  impair  their 
zeal  or  prevent  the  addiction  of  others  to  similar  employ- 
ment, or  should  they  even  be  called  "  spies  of  the  state  in- 
quisitors," the  person  so  naming  them  was  to  be  arrested, 
tortured  till  he  revealed  the  method  by  which  he  obtained 
this  dangerous  knowledge,  and  punished  afterward  at  the 
discretion  of  the  tribunal. 

Four  at  least  of  these  agents,  each  unknown  to  the  other, 
and  all  selected  from  the  inferior  classes,  were  to  watch 
every  ambassador  resident  in  Venice ;  and  the  numerous  pro- 
visions respecting  the  observation  of  foreign  ministers  were 
singularly  precise.     The  great  object  appears  to  have  been 


the  prevention  of  intercourse  between  them  and  the  native 
nobility.  The  first  attempt  of  the  spies  was  always  to  be 
made  upon  their  secretaries,  to  whom  a  large  monthly  sti- 
pend might  be  promised  solely  for  the  revelation  of  any  se- 
cret commerce  between  their  masters  and  a  noble  ;  the  fit- 
test persons  through  whom  these  overtures  could  be  mnde 
were  monks  and  Jews,  both  of  whom  it  is  said  gain  admis- 
sion everywhere.*  If  an  ordinary  spy  proved  insufficient 
to  penetrate  the  diplomatic  secrets,  some  Venetian  con- 
demned to  banishment  was  instructed  to  take  asylum  in  the 
ambassador's  palace  ;  immunity  from  the  pursuit  of  govern- 
ment being  promised  for  the  time,  and  a  future  recompense 
also  proportioned  to  his  discoveries.  The  asylum  in  the 
above  instance  was  manifestly  a  pretext ;  but  as  the  privi- 
lege was  really  allowed  by  the  law  of  nations,  it  was  often 
claimed  in  earnest ;  and  in  these  cases  the  inquisitors  re- 
solved that  if  the  otfence  for  which  the  criminal  sought  re- 
fuge were  slight,  all  knowledge  of  his  hiding-place  should 
be  dissembled  ;  but  if  of  graver  hue,  every  means  should  be 
taken  to  arrest,  or  if  these  were  unsuccessful  to  assassinate 
him.  If  the  fugitive  were  a  noble,  however  trifling  might 
be  his  fault,  he  should  be  assassinated  without  a  moment's 
hesitation.!  Whenever  a  foreign  ambassador  should  solicit 
pardon  for  an  exile,  due  care  must  be  taken  to  examine  into 
the  character  of  the  party  ;  and  if  he  prove  to  be  of  mean 
condition,  loose  morals,  and  narrow  circumstances,  (how  well 
did  these  children  of  the  tempter  understand  what  spirits 
were  most  open  to  their  wiles  !)  it  was  probable  that  he 
might  be  gained  as  a  spy.  Propositions  therefore  should 
be  made  to  him  to  superintend  the  establishment  of  the  am- 
bassador ;  to  whom,  on  account  of  the  favour  conferred  on 
him,  he  would  be  likely  to  obtain  famihar  access  ;  and  whom 
accordingly,  under  an  appearance  of  gratitude,  he  might  the 
more  readily  betray.  If  any  noble  should  report  to  the  in- 
quisitors proposals  made  to  him  by  an  ambassador,  he  should 
be  authorized  to  continue  the  treasonable  negotiation  until 
the  intermediate  agent  could  be  seized  in  the  very  act :  then, 
provided  it  were  not  the  ambassador  himself  or  the  secre- 
tary of  legation,  but  some  minor  agent,  of  whose  quaUty  and 

*  Che  sono  persone  chefacilmente  trattono  con  tutti.—Si.  xii. 
t  Sia  fatto  ammazzare  soUecitaynente.—Si..  xxx. 

Vol.  il.— H 


ir 


^  I 


eiKa£.V.<t^tU,w/ 


r  P 


JSP^i»' 


86 


STATUTES    OF 


THE    INQUISITION    OF    STATE. 


87 


person  ignorance  might  be  pretended,  he  was  to  be  iramC" 
dii'itely  drowned. 

Especially  favourable  opportunities  for  observation  might 
be  found,  it  was  said,  whenever  an  ambassador  was  making 
choice  of  a  residence.  It  was  already  an  established  law, 
that  if  a  foreign  minister  negotiated  with  a  nobleman  for 
his  house,  the  owner  must  not  complete  his  bargain  with- 
out hrst  obtaining  permission  from  the  Ten,  who  prescribed 
to  him  the  lit  method  of  conducting  his  treaty  without  hold- 
ing the  slightest  forbidden  intercourse  with  the  stranger. 
But,  for  still  greater  security,  each  iiic|uisitor  now  resolved 
to  examine  separately  and  with  the  utmost  particularity 
every  house  intended  as  the  abode  of  a  foreign  minister,  in 
order  to  determine  whether  any  secret  communication  could 
be  established  whh  the  adjoming  tenements  ;  and  whether 
its  roof  were  level  with  those  of  its  neighbours,  so  that  per- 
sons might  pass  from  one  to  the  other.  If  such  were  the 
case,  and  the  house  next  door  were  occupied  by  a  noble 
owner,  he  was  to  be  advised  to  quit,  and  to  let  it  to  some  one 
of  an  inferior  class ;  and  if  he  has  a  grain  of  good  sense, 
says  the  statute,  he  will  understand  and  obey.  If  a  noble 
only  rented  the  adjoining  premises,  he  was  at  once  to  be  com- 
manded to  dislodge,  and  his  place  was  to  be  supplied  by  a 
spy  ;  the  expenses  of  whose  establishment,  if  necessary, 
should  be  defrayed  by  the  tribunal.  Snares  were  also  laid 
for  the  lighter  and  more  unguarded  moments  of  the  repre- 
sentatives of  friendly  powers ;  and  if  a  spy  could  discover 
any  amatory  intercourse,  he  was  instructed  to  connect  him- 
self by  similar  ties  with  the  favourite  mistress  of  the  am- 
bassador ;  under  a  plea  of  jealousy  to  conceal  himself  in 
her  apartments  ;  and  thus  to  ascertain  whether  they  were 
frequented  by  any  Venetian  noble.  If  they  were  so,  the  in- 
quisitors would  determine  from  the  general  character  of  the 
visiter  whether  he  were  a  person  likely  to  divert  such  a  ren- 
dezvous to  other  intrigues  than  those  of  gallantry.  On  satis- 
factorily determining  his  innocence,  they  would  be  content 
to  warn  him  of  indiscretion,  and  to  prohibit  him  by  menace 
of  severe  punishment  from  the  further  maintenance  of  so 
hazardous  an  intercourse. 

The  envoy  of  the  holy  see,  and,  in  later  times,  that  of 
Sptiin  also,  were  watched  more  closely  by  the  inquisitors 
than  those  of  other  states.     Any  ambassador  of  the  repub- 


lic to  the  Vatican,  who  should  accept  an  ecclesiastical  ap- 
pointment, either  for  himself  or  for  any  connexion,  was  to 
be  subject,  besides  all  other  statutable  penalties,  to  confis- 
cation of  the  revenues  of  his  benefice,  and  if  he  dared  to 
appeal  to  Home  he  was  to  be  assassinated  secretly  and  in- 
stantly.    The  palace  of  the  nuncio  in  Venice  was  regarded 
with  ceaseless  suspicion,  for  the  ecclesiastics  always  suc- 
cessfully maintained   their  privilege  of  free  access  to  its 
walls  ;  therefore  the  most  jealous  vigilance  was  exercised  ; 
and  it  was  reconmiended   that  some  ecclesiastic,  distin- 
guished  for   subtlety,    for   needy  circumstances,  and   for 
patriu/ic   zeal,    some    "bishop   rn   parfihus''   for  example, 
should  be  selected  to  win  the  confidence  of  the  nuncio ; 
and  from  time  to  time,  under  pretext  of  unportant  disclo- 
sures, to  pour  into  his  ear  a  succession  of  false  advices, 
adapted  to  the  views  of  government  and  the  circumstances 
of  the  moment.     Asa  check  to  undue  freedom  of  conversa- 
tion among  the  nuncio's  suite,  if  any  one  attached  to  it 
should  presume  to  canvass  forbidden  subjects,  such  as  the 
limits  of  secular  authority  over  ecclesiastical  persons,  and 
other  matters  of  similar  description,  he  was  to  be  imme- 
diately assassinated  ;  care  at  the  same  time  being  taken  to 
let  it  be  well  known  by  whose  directions  and  on  what  ac- 
count the  blow  had  been  inflicted.     Such  Venetian  prelates 
as  were  sufficiently  hardy  to  propound  like  maxims  wttinn 
the  palace,  were  to  be  registeiod  in  a  book  containing  the 
names  of  cede  mast  ici  poco  arcetti ;  and  all  possible  means 
were  to  be  emploved  to  entangle  them  in  vexatious  lawsuits, 
by  raising  up  claims,  however  ill-founded,  upon  their  bene- 
fices, and  by  sequestering  their  revenues,  till  they  should 
have  sagacity  enough  to  discover  the  reason  for  these  pro- 
cesses, and  to  repent  their  inadvertence.     If  they  babbled 
tcithout  the  palace,  they  were  to  be  carried  off  secretly  and 
subjected  to  long  confinement;   and  whenever  they  per- 
sisted in  contumacy  after  these  sequestrations  and  tedious 
imprisonments,  measures  of  the  uttermost  rigour  were  to  be 
employed ;  since  it  is  only  by  the  knife  and  the  cautery 
(ferro  c  fuoco)  that  an  inveterate  disease  can  be  extermi- 
nated.    Notwithstanding  the  bold  attitude  with  which  the 
Venetian  government  confronted  the  encroachments  of  the 
papacy,  it  is  plain,  upon  a  comparison  of  the  ordinances 
affecting  laics  with  that  directed  against  ecclesiastics,  that 


88 


STATUTES   OF 


t 


'  I 

'J 

I 


the  latter  were  regarded  with  a  tenderness  not  extended  to 
the  former,  however  dignified  might  be  their  station 

Another  proceeding,  seemingly  directed  in  an  especial 
manner  agamst  Spain,  and  therefore  beloncrina  to  a  con- 
siderably later  period  than  the  first  appointment  of  the  In- 
quisition of  State,  exceeds  in  complicated  iniquity  any  of 
those  winch  we  have  as  yet  noticed.     Reports,  it  was  said, 
were  often    submitted   to  the   tribunal   that  unknown  or 
masked  persons,  by  night  or  during  the  carnival,  made 
overtures  from  the  government  of  Spain  to  certain  nobles. 
1  he  persons  thus  invited,  by  promising  their  decision  at  a 
luture  interview,  gained  time  to  inform  the  inquisitors ;  to 
whom  they  likewise  tendered  their  services  for  the  assassi- 
nation of  the   agent,  provided  they  might  be  allowed  to 
carry  pistols,  agiiinst  the  usage  of  which  in  the  streets  of 
Venice  a  standing  law  existed.     Many  reasons  concurred 
to  induce  the  rt^ection  of  this  proposal ;  but  it  was  thouifht 
advisable  that   the    episcopal   spy    before   noticed   should 
whisper  to  the  nuncio  that  it  had  been  accepted  ;  with  a  full 
confidence  that  the  nuncio  in  turn  would  transmit  the  intel- 
ligence to  the  Spanish  ambassador,  who  mitrht  in  conse- 
quence be  deterred  by  the  peril  of  his  emissary  from  con- 
tmuing  the  intrigue.     Nevertheless,  as  the  statute  reasons, 
the  ministers  employed  by  crowned  heads  are,  for  the  most 
part,  too  subtle  and  sagacious  to  be  thus  easily  cajoled  ;  and 
It  IS  probable,  therefore,  that  the  real  nature  of  the  device 
will  be  suspected  :  so  that  in  order  to  give  it  a  colourina  of 
truth,  which  may  produce  the  same  effect  as  truth  itself 
recourse  must  be  had  to  the  following  process  •  The  in' 
quisitors  must  find  out  some  banished>enetian,  who  has 
eluded  his  sentence,  and  continues  to  reside  in  the  city  • 
takmg  care  that  he  be  a  person  of  more  than  ordinary  ca- 
pacity and  consideration.     Then,  selecting  from  their  spies 
a  nobleman  of  attested  courage,  and  who  ts  actually  a  mem- 
ber of  Ike  senate  at  the  time,  they  must  instruct  him  to  as- 
sassinate the  exile ;  and  afterward,  but  with  some  ostenta- 
tion of  secrecy,  to  boast  of  his  exploit,  adding  that  it  was 
committed  m  consequence  of  a  treasonable  overture  from 
Spain  which  the  murdered  man  ventured  to  propose.    Aaain, 

t\L7b     JT'  "^-^  fT  "^"^^  ^^^«'  ^«  ^^«  ^«  announce 
that  he  had  received  full  pardon  for  the  deed  of  blood. 

Ihe  ambassador,  well  knowing  that  the  person  killed  was 


THE    INQUISITION   OF    STATE. 


89 


not  one  of  his  agents,  would  at  once  imagine  that  the  noble 
had  made  a  false  representation  to  the  inquisitors,  and  had 
assumed  public  motives  for  the  revenge  of  some  private 
quarrel ;  but  perceiving  also  that  the  assassin  had  been 
pardoned  in  consequence  of  his  fidelity  under  the  pretended 
temptation,  he  would  desist  from  any  real  intrigue,  throutrh 
a  conviction  that  similar  indulgence  would  again  be  ex- 
tended to  a  similar  murder.  In  order  to  prevent  any  sus- 
picion of  collusion,  the  man  was  to  be  killed,  not  with  pis- 
tols, but  with  the  stiletto ;  and  if  he  were  an  exile  who  at 
any  time  had  sought  asylum  in  the  ambassador's  palace,  it 
would  be  very  much  to  the  purpose  {sarcbhc  anco  molto  pu 
a  proposito) ;  since  it  might  then  be  supposed  that,  although 
without  previous  sanction,  he  really  did  make  the  pretended 
overture,  in  order  that,  if  the  negotiation  ripened,  he  might 
claim  merit  for  it  with  his  patron  and  protector. 

The  method  recommended  to  countervail  the  influence  of 
any  foreign  statesman  hostile  to  the  interests  of  Venice  is 
not  indeed  so  bloody  as  that  just  detailed,  but  it  is  equally 
insidious.  Every  Venetian  noble  on  his  return  from  an 
embassy  formally  reported  to  the  senate  all  matters  con- 
nected with  his  recent  mission,  and  under  the  circumstances 
above  mentioned  he  was  instructed  to  interweave  in  this 
oflScial  document  a  notice  that  he  had  bribed  the  obnoxious 
minister  in  question ;  who  had  promised  entire  devotion  to 
the  service  of  Venice  hereafter,  with  the  sole  proviso  that, 
for  greater  secrecy,  his  conversion  must  apparently  be 
gradual.  Care  was  to  be  taken  that  this  report  went  forth 
to  the  public,  and  was  conveyed  to  the  court  most  concerned 
in  it  by  its  own  ambassador,  by  some  enemy  of  the  denounced, 
or,  with  yet  greater  certainty,  by  charging  the  episcopal  spy 
to  deliver  it  with  much  affectation  of  mystery  to  the  nuncio, 
from  whom  it  would  immediately  find  conveyance  to  those 
ears  by  which  the  inquisitors  most  desired  it  should  be  be- 
lieved :  and  thus  would  effectually  destroy  the  weight  of 
the  individual  whose  reputation  it  was  intended  to  under- 
mine. 

To  pass  to  regulations  of  domestic  polity.  Every  morn- 
ing, after  a  sitting  of  the  Great  (>ouncil,  the  inquisitors  were 
to  assemble  and  to  discuss  the  fortunes,  habits,  and  charac- 
ters of  such  nobles  as  had  been  appointed  to  any  offices  of 
state.     Two  spies,  mutually  unknown,  were  to  be  attached 

H2 


J' 


I 


(i 


90 


STATUTES    OF 


THE    INQUISITION    OF    STATE. 


91 


to  any  of  those  upon  whom  suspicion  might  rest,  to  follow 
all  their  steps,  and  to  report  all  their  actions.  If  those 
emissaries  should  fail  to  discover  any  thing  of  moment,  a 
more  dexterous  person  was  to  be  selected  to  visit  the  noble 
by  night,  and  to  offer  him  a  bribe  from  some  foreign  am- 
bassador for  a  betrayal  of  the  secrets  of  the  council.  Even 
if  he  withstood  that  trial,  but  did  not  immediately  denounce 
the  overture,  he  was  to  be  registered  in  a  Libra  de*  Suspettij 
and  ever  afterward  to  be  carefully  observed.  If  any  noble 
not  under  sentence  of  exile  should  enter  into  the  service  of 
a  foreign  court,  he  was  to  be  recalled  home ;  on  disobe- 
dience, his  relations  were  to  be  imprisoned ;  after  two 
months'  contumacy,  he  was  to  be  assassinated  wherever  he 
could  be  found ;  or,  that  attempt  failing,  to  be  erased  from 
the  Gofden  Book.  A  very  similar  process  was  employed 
against  artisuns  who  exported  with  them  any  native  manu- 
facture. Should  any  noble,  while  speaking"  in  the  senate 
or  the  Grand  Council,  w^ander  from  his  subject  into  matters 
deemed  prejudicial  to  the  state,  he  was  to  be  immediately 
interrupted  by  one  of  the  chiefs  of  the  Ten.  In  case  the 
orator  disputed  this  authority,  or  said  any  thing  injurious  to 
it,  no  notice  was  to  be  taken  at  the  moment ;  but  he  was 
to  be  arrested  on  the  close  of  the  sitting,  tried  according  to 
his  offence,  and,  if  direct  means  of  conviction  were  unat- 
tainable, to  be  put  to  death  privately.  As  freedom  of  de- 
bate in  the  legislative  bodies  was  thus  narrowly  limited,  it 
can  be  no  matter  of  surprise  that  restraint  was  imposed 
upon  conversation  elsewhere.  A  noble  guilty  of  indiscre- 
tion of  speech  was  to  be  twice  admonished  ;  on  the  third 
ofTence,  to  be  prohibited  from  appearing  in  the  public  streets 
or  councils  for  two  years ;  if  he  disobeyed,  or  if  he  relapsed 
after  the  two  years  {fornasse  a  vomito  is  the  strong  expres- 
sion of  the  original),  he  was  to  be  drowned  as  incorrigible. 
In  order  to  obtain  notice  of  these  derelictions,  the  noble 
spies  sedulously  watched  all  members  of  their  own  class  in 
their  assemblies  on  the  Broglio^*  the  arcade  under  tho 

♦The  Broglio  may  be  considered  the  Exchange  of  the  Venetian  nobility, 
m  which  they  brought  their  votes  to  market,  and  far  Broglio  with  them 
answered  precisely  to  the  commercial  phrase  to  he  on  'Change.  No  one 
of  inferior  rank  was  permitted  to  intrude  within  its  precincts  while  fre- 
quented by  the  nobles,  and  separate  walks  were  conventionally  set 
•part  for  tlie  different  classes  among  themselves.    The  popular  dehva- 


clucal  palace  which  was  their  privileged  resort ;  the  early 
morning  hours  were  judged  to  be  most  favourable  for  these 
observations,  because  the  promenade  being  less  frequented 
at  that  time,  greater  license,  it  was  thought,  might  then  be 
hazarded. 

Upon  the  honour  of  a  class  of  men  thus  debased  by  mu- 
tual treachery,  little  reliance  could  be  placed  by  the  govern- 
ment which  taught  them  to  betray,  and  which  therefore 
indeed  possessed  the  fullest  means  of  estimating  their  ve- 
nality. Accordingly,  we  find  most  severe  penalties  attached 
to  an  offence,  suspicion  of  which  could  not  affect  the  no- 
bility of  any  other  country  than  Venice.  Fraudulent  bal- 
loting was  punished  with  six  years'  confinement  in  the 
Piombi,  succeeded  by  as  many  more  of  exclusion  from 
the  council  ;  and  a  repetition  of  the  crime,  with  death.* 
Another  ordinance  affecting  the  patricians  affords  a  lament- 
able portrait  of  the  insecurity  of  Venetian  society  during 
the  latter  half  of  the  fifteenth  century.  Many  nobles,  it 
appears,  were  in  the  habit  of  summoning  individuals,  at 
pleasure,  before  private  tribunals  in  their  own  palaces ; 
here,  some  were  ordered  to  make  payments  to  pretended 
creditors,  some  to  be  reconciled  to  persons  from  whom  they 
h.id  suffered  injury,  others  to  forbear  from  suits  of  law  whicli 
they  were  prosecuting  ;  and,  in  furtherance  of  these  several 
oppressive  and  illegal  demands,  the  self-constituted  magis- 
trate frequently  employed  menaces  and  blows,  occasionally 
capital  execution.  The  offender,  if  he  had  confined  him- 
self to  threats  only,  was  to  be  severely  reprimanded  and 


tion  imbrogliare,  to  embroil,  to  cabal,  very  justly  characterized  this  mart 
of  corruption;  but  Sansovino  gives  one  much  more  recondite.  The 
whole  of  the  Piazza  di  San  Marco  was  once,  he  says,  the  Brolo,  or  Gar- 
den, of  the  monks  of  S.  Zaccaria  ;  "  dalla  qual  voce  Brolo  naeque  quest* 
altra  di  Broglio  6  Brogio,  significativa  di  quelle  cerernorije  e  di  quelle 
insianii  preghiere  cbe  fanno  i  nobili  1'  uno  con  altro  quando  ricercano 
d'  ottenere  qualche  magistrato  nella  republica ;  percioche  stando  ne' 
tempi  antichi,  all'  usanza  dei  Candidati  Romani,  in  Piazza,  per  ricercar 
del  suffragio  suo  chi  passava,  chianiata  Broglio,  si  nomind  quell'  atto 
dal  luogo,  e  si  disse /ar  Broio." — Venetia  descntta,  lib.  i.  /  88,  ed. 
1614.  Bp.  Rurnet  says  that  Guy  Patin  suggested  to  him  the  far-fetched 
Greek  -rrepiPoXaiov. 

*  Daru  mentions  an  ancient  law  by  wtiich  more  summary  punish- 
ment was  inflicted  upon  this  offence.  Any  voter  detected  in  dropping 
more  than  a  single  ball  into  the  urn  might  be  thrown  out  of  window. 
Vol.  v.  liv.  XXXV.  p,  316,  note. 


4 


'■"f      „= 

•^^<*^ 


02 


STATUTES   OF 


THE    INQUISITION   OF   STATE. 


93 


placed  under  observation  :  if  he  relapsed,  he  was  to  be  im- 
prisoned for  at  least  three  years  in  the  Piomhi ;  and  on  a 
third  conviction,  he  was  to  be  drowned.  But  if,  in  the  first 
instance,  ho  had  proceeded  to  acts  of  violence,  his  imme- 
diate punishment  was  to  be  proportioned  to  his  degree  of 
crime.  The  penalty  awarded  mi<j:ht  be  death,  and  to  ren- 
der  the  example  more  impressive,  this  mi;^^ht  be  inflicted 
publicly  ;  notwithstanding  another  statute  which  expressly 
declared,  that  whenever  death  was  considered  necessary, 
the  scandal  of  open  display  should  be  avoided  by  drownino- 
the  malefactor  privately  in  the  Canule  Orfano.* 

In  two  cases  only  was  the  interference  of  any  other 
portion  of  the  government  permitted.    If  one  of  the  inquisi- 
tors themselves  were  denounced,  a  supplementary  inquisi- 
tor was  named  from  the  Ten  to  assist  his  two  brethren, 
and  on  an  accusation  of  one  of  the  chiefs  of  the  Ten,  three 
assessors  from  that  council  were  selected,  and  five  voices 
were  necessary  for  his  condemnation  ;  if  death  were  the 
penalty  adjudged  in  this  instance,  it  was  recommended  that 
it  should  be  inflicted  by  poison,  rather  than  by  any  other 
mode.     The  doge    was   exempt  from  citation  before  the 
inquisitors,  and  if  subjected  to  a  reprimand,  it  was  delivered 
to  him  in  his  private  apartments.     In  cases  which  alfectcd 
officers  of  the  arsenal,  due  regard  was  always  to  be  paid  to 
the  great  utility  of  their  profession.     For  the  treatment  of 
persons  oflensive  to  government,  but  of  superior  influence, 
whom  it  might  not  therefore  be  prudent  to  dismiss  afl;er 
they  had  been  irritated  by  arrest,  and   whom  it  might  be 
equally  impolitic  to  put  to  death,  even  privately,  on  account 
of  the  power  of  their  connexions,  a  convenient  mezzo  ter- 
mine  was  suggested.    The  jailer  was  instructed  to  pretend 
willingness  to  favour  the  prisoner's  escape,  and,  on  the 

*  The  Venetians  assert  tliat  in  the  Lagune,  at  the  back  of  San  Giorgio 
Maggiore,  the  Cavale  Orfano,  originallv  delV  Area,  received  its  name 
after  the  defeat  of  Pepin,  in  A.  D.  804  (vol.  i.  p.  13),  by  which  all  the 
children  of  Lombardy  were  made  orphans.  The  author  of  that  very 
rare  tract  the  Squitdnio  della  Libcrtd  Voutd  rejects  this  notion,  and 
treats  it  as  a  cosa  dariclrc.  Etvmologisis,  he  savs,  had  better  trace 
the  name  to  Orfneo,  Or/'nino,  Orfino,  or  Orfno,  all  which  words  in 
Greek  (meaning  thereby  dpipraloi)  signify  black,  dark,  obscure ;  epithets 
which  may  reasonably  be  assigned  to  a  canal  of  very  dangerous  navi- 
gation, without  any  forced  reference  to  tlie  fable  of  Pepin's  defeat. 
Greek  derivations,  he  adds,  can  be  by  no  means  strange  lo  Venice.— <?. 
iu.  ad  arm.  804. 


evening  before  he  released  him,  he  was  to  administer  with 
his  last  meal  a  poison  of  slow  effect  and  leaving  no  trace  of 
its  action  ;  so  that  whenever  death  ensued,  it  was  not 
likely  that  it  would  be  charged  upon  the  inquisitors.  By 
such  means,  as  this  statute  concludes,  shall  we  satisfy  both 
public  and  private  duty,  and  justice  will  attain  the  end  at 
which  she  aims,  through  a  way  somewhat  more  circuitous 
indeed  than  usual,  but  also  more  secure. 

A  similar  tone  of  high  moral  reflection  pervades  the 
instructions  to  the  governors  of  Cyprus  and  Candia.  If 
there  were  any  persons  of  noble  birth  or  of  superior  influence 
resident  in  those  islands,  who,  it  was  thought,  might  be 
better  out  of  the  way  (siassc  hen  inorto),  they  were  to  be 
despatched  secretly,  provided  the  magistrate  felt  in  his 
conscience  that  he  could  not  proceed  otherwise,  and  was 
able  to  answer  for  the  act  before  God,  with  entire  sincerity. 
So  nicely  shaded  and  graduated  aioo  were  the  various 
species  of  possible  olTence,  so  delicately  weighed  and 
balanced  were  the  proportions  of  contingent  crime,  that 
any  one  who  engnged  to  arrest  or  assassinate  an  exile 
could  not  be  paid  by  grace  accorded  to  another  exile,  unless 
the  arrested  or  assassinated  were  equally  guilty  with  his 
companion  in  banishment.  Thus  also,  if  a  banished  state- 
criminal  sought  pardon  by  proflTering  like  services,  the 
inquisitors  were  to  determine  whether  the  murdered  were 
inferior  or  superior  in  guilt  to  the  murderer  ;  if  the  former, 
the  assassin  might  be  rewarded,  but  he  could  by  no  means 
obtain  an  entire  remission  of  punishment. 

The  operation  of  these  most  execrable  statutes  will 
frequently  cast  dark  shadows  over  our  future  pages ;  and 
we  return,  not  unwillingly,  to  a  more  active  narrative,  from 
this  digression,  which,  although  perhaps  long,  is  still  ne- 
cessary for  the  elucidation  of  numerous  leading  principles 
in  the  constitution  of  Venice.  To  the  professed  historian, 
however,  we  must  relinquish  the  ungrateful  task  of  re- 
cording in  detail  the  many  enormities  which  deform  a  war 
with  the  Turks,  to  a  rapid  view  of  which  we  are  about  to 
direct  ourselves.  The  wise  policy  of  Sforza,  since  his 
acquisition  of  the  duchy  of  Milan,  maintained,  with  a  few 
unimportant  exceptions,  a  steady  peace  throughout  the 
states  in  his  vicinity,  during  the  remainder  of  his  life,  and 
even  for  twenty  years  beyond  it ;  and  for  awhile,  therefore^ 


lirtteMfctirifaiaMfaiMltriiiiiinr  itfli 


94 


WAR  WITH  TURKEY. 


PROJECTED  CRUSADE. 


95 


we  may  turn  from  the  busy  scenes  by  which  Italy  has  been 
so  long  agitated,  to  transactions  in  countries  fur  removed 
from  her  peninsula. 

Christoforo  Moro,  of  a  Candiote  family,  was  elected 

doge  on  the  decease  of  Malipieri,  and,  but  a  few 
A.  D.  months  after  his  accession,  a  dispute  with  the  Pacha 
1462.    of  Athens  respecting  a  fugitive  slave    spread  the 

flames  of  war  over  the  Morea  and  its  adjacent  dis- 
tricts. A  ferocious  contest,  evilly  distinguished  by  foul 
acts  of  mutual  cruelty,  raged  during  a  bloody  course  of 
fifteen  years ;  and  there  is  scarcely  a  spot  on  the  Grecian 
soil,  endeared  to  us  by  generous  associations,  which  was  not 
polluted  at  some  moment  of  this  war  by  rapine,  treachery, 
or  massacre.  The  sack  of  Argos  by  the  Turks  preluded 
the  siege  of  Corinth  by  the  Venetians ;  and  during  its 
investnient,  we  read  of  an  idle  work,  which,  nevertheless, 
forcibly  recalls  one  of  the  most  spirit-stirring  .portions  of 
ancient  history.  Of  the  wall  which  the  Peloponnesians 
threw  across  the  Isthmus  of  Corinth  on  the  approach  of 
Xerxes,  Herodotus  does  little  more  than  mention  the  exist- 
ence.* A  similar  fortification  was  constructed  by  Manuel 
II.  in  1413,  which  the  Venetians  afterward  repaired,  when 
in  possession  of  the  neighbouring  city,  without  however 
finding  it  an  adequate  barrier  against  Turkish  invasion. 
Nevertheless,  in  order  to  cover  their  besieging  army,  they 
now  restored  this  useless  outwork.  Thirty  thousand  men 
were  employed  on  this  gigantic  labour  during  fifteen  days  ; 
in  which  time  they  covered  a  distance  of  six  miles,  from 
eea  to  sea,  with  a  wall  of  uncemented  stones,  twelve  feet 
in  height,  flanked  by  thirty-six  towers,  and  protected  by  a 
broad  double  fosse.*^  But  this  rampart  neither  afforded 
confidence  to  its  builders  nor  daunted  their  enemy  ;  as  the 
Turks  advanced,  the  Venetians  abandoned  their  fortification 
without  attempting  its  defence,  and  sought  a  surer  position 
on  the  rocky  promontory  of  Napoli  di  Romania,  where  they 
more  successfully  maintained  themselves. 

Meantime  ^neas  Silvius,  who  held  the  pontificate, 
under  the  title  of  Pius  II.,  having  failed  in  an  attempt  for 
the  peaceable  conversion  of  Mahomet  II.,  whom  he  had 
soberly  exhorted  in  an  apostolical  letter  to  renounce  the 

*  viii.  40. 


imposture  of  his  prophet,  and  to  embrace  the  Christian 
verity,  directed  all  his  cares  to  the  organization  of  a  new 
cmsade.  Indulgences  were  lavishly  distributed  throughout 
Christendom,  and  the  ardour  of  religious  zeal  and  the 
terror  of  the  Ottoman  conquests  collected  a  numerous  but 
ill-appointed  band  of  warriors,  prepared,  under  the  personal 
guidance  of  the  holy  father,  to  encounter  the  infidels.  Venice, 
as  one  deeply  interested  and  already  engaged  in  the  contest, 
was  among  the  first  powers  to  which  a  papal  brief  was 
addressed;  and  the  Doge  Moro, an  old  man,  whose  besetting 
passions  were  avarice  and  love  of  ease,  was  lost  in  conster- 
nation at  the  proposals  which  it  conveyed.  "  The  victory 
which  we  anticipate,"  wrote  the  anhnated  and  energetic 
pontifl*,  "  will  be  rendered  far  more  certain,  if  you,  tho 
prince  of  Venice  and  captain  of  her  annies,  will  accompany 
us  in  this  war.  We  ourselves  design  to  increase  the  terror 
of  the  infidels  by  a  full  display  of  the  dignity  of  St.  Peter  : 
and  you,  if  you  will  appear  in  your  Bucentaur,  clad  in  the 
ducal  insignia,  will  fill  with  dread  not  only  the  opposite 
shores  of  Greece  and  Asia,  but  even  the  whole  oriental 
world."*  It  was  in  vain,  however,  that  this  flattering 
exaggeration  of  his  power  was  dropped  into  the  dull  ears 
of  Moro  ;  that  the  bright  examples  of  his  predecessors 
were  exhibited  to  his  closed  eyes  ;  and  that  he  was  invited 
to  pursue  the  heroic  steps  of  Dandolo  and  Contarini. 
''Come  then,  my  dear  son,"  wrote  the  holy  father  in 
continuance,  "  and  do  not  refuse  to  partake  the  toils  which 
I  myself  willingly  undergo.  Plead  not  old  age  in  excuse, 
for  the  Duke  of  Burgundy,  not  less  advanced  in  life  than 
you  are,  and  sovereign  of  a  yet  more  distant  country, 
undertakes  the  voyage.  We  too  ourselves  hesitate  not  to 
embark,  although  bowed  beneath  sixty-two  winters,  and 
tormented  day  and  night  by  our  infirmities.  We  three 
veterans  will  divide  the  superintendence  of  the  war.  A 
trinity  is  acceptable  to  God,  and  the  Divine  Trinity  assu- 
redly'will  protect  that  which  we  shall  constitute.  Fail  not, 
therefore,  at  the  gathering  ;  neither  fear  a  death  which,  if 
it  happens,  will  conduct  you  to  a  better  life.  All  of  us 
must  die  in  this   world ;   and  no  death  can  be  more  an 

*  The  whole  of  this  brief,  from  which  we  have  selected  only  a  few 
sentences,  may  be  found,  among  other  writers,  in  the  History  of  P. 
Justiiiiani,  lib.  viii.  p.  2U7. 


4 


\'- 


96 


DEATH    OF    PIUS    II. 


DEATH  OF  FRANCESCO  SFORZA. 


97 


object  of  desire  than  that  which  is  encountered  in  the  cause 

of  God." 

Cogent  and  consolatory  as  these  arguments  no  doubt 
appeared  to  their  framer,  glowing  as  were  these  assurances 
of  blessing  and  immortality,  they  met  with  no  response  in 
the  chilled  bosom  of  Moro.  When  the  brief  was  read 
before  the  council,  he  vehemently  pleaded  his  declining 
years,  his  unwarlikc  habits,  and  his  unserviceableness  in 
the  field,  as  excuses  for  disobeying  the  summons.  But  his 
protest  was  unavailing  against  the  united  voices  of  the 
nobles.  "  Most  serene  prince,"  was  the  conclusive  reply 
of  their  spokesman,  "  if  your  serenity  refuses  to  embark 
with  good-will,  we  shall  compel  you  to  go  by  force  ;  for 
the  honour  and  advantage  of  our  country  is  far  more  dear 
to  us  than  is  your  person."  The  doge  answered  not  a 
word  ;  and  the  other  senators,  as  we  are  told,  comforted 
him  by  promising  the  assistance  of  four  of  their  body  as 
privy  counsellors.'*  The  rendezvous  was  fixed  at  Ancona, 
whither  Moro,  having  first  consulted  the  astrologers  for  a 
fortunate  hour,  set  sail  with  a  reluctant  spirit.  Notwith- 
standing the  good  promise  of  the  stars,  a  storm  surprised 
the  fleet  in  one  of  the  canals,  and  carried  away  from  the 
dole's  galley  its  crimson  banner  blazoned  with  golden 
images  of  St.  Mark.t  Scarcely,  however,  had  he  entered 
the  appointed  port,  when  he  learned,  with  ill-dissembled 
joy,  that  the  projected  expedition  was  arrested  by  the  death 
of  the  pope  ;  who,  exhausted  by  mental  and  bodily  fatigue, 
breathed  his  last  a  few  hours  after  the  arrival  of  the  Vene- 
tian armament.  The  sacred  college  partook  but  little  in 
the  zeal  of  their  deceased  chief;  the  crusade  was  abandoned, 
and  Moro,  having  unbuckled  his  armour,  took  his  seat  in 
the  consistory,  received  the  thanks  of  the  assembled  cardi- 
nals, and  joyfully  returned  to  St.  Mark's. 

The  Turks,  during  these  transactions,  were  earnestly 
negotiating  European  alliances,  and  one  of  their  invitations 
was  addressed  to  the  Duke  of  Milan.  It  was  not  without 
very  natural  inquietude  that  the  signory  was  informed  of 
the  arrival  of  Ottoman  ambassadors  at  the  Lombard  court, 
of  their  honourable  reception,  and  of  their  proposition,  that, 

*  Sanuto,  1174. 

t  Velluto  cremisino  co'  Sanmarchi  d'OTO.  Id.  1180. 


A.  D. 

1466. 


while  Mahomet  continued  the  war  in  Greece,  Sforza  should 
eifect  a  diversion  upon  the  Venetian  territories  in  Italy. 
But  that  great  man,  both  from  declining  health,  and  sound 
political  foresight,  felt  little  inclination  to  disturb  the  peace 
wiiich  he  had  so  long  laboured  to  consolidate,  and  he  ac- 
cordingly rejected  the  alliance.  For  some  years  past  he 
had  been  oppressed  with  symptoms  of  dropsy,  but  his  last 
illness  was  only  of  two  days'  duration.  Firmly  established 
on  his  throne,  which  he  seemed  to  have  won  b}^  conquest 
solely  in  order  to  sheathe  all  swords  around  Jiim ;  in  the 
height  of  glory  and  pror-perity,  and  having  secured  his  fam- 
ily by  inteiTnarriages  with  the  princely  houses  of 
Savoy,  Arragon,  and  France,  he  expired  on  the  2.5th 
of  March,  1466,  in  the  65th  year  of  his  age.  His 
sick  couch  was  watched  w^ith  tender  care  by  the  hi«Th-minded 
and  alVectionate  Birtuca  ;  she  soothed  him  by  her  attentions, 
she  consulted  with  his  physicians,  she  prepared  and  admin- 
istered his  medicines ;  and  when  the  progress  of  fatal 
symptoms  manifestly  announced  the  rapid  approach  of  his 
last  hour,  suppressing  her  grief,  she  provided  for  the  tran- 
quil succession  of  her  son  (inleazzo,  at  that  time  in  the  ser- 
vice of  the  King  of  France,  by  forwarding  messengers  to 
hasten  his  presence  m  Milan  ;  and  by  despatching  ambas- 
sadors to  Venice  and  the  other  chief  Italian  powers,  solicit- 
ing a  continuance  of  their  friendship.  Then  in  the  dead 
of  the  night  assembling  a  council,  she  proposed  fit  measures 
for  the  restraint  of  that  popular  agitation  which  is  so  fre- 
quently excited  by  the  death  of  princes ;  and,  subduing 
every  feminine  weakness,  although  her  heart  was  rent  asun- 
der by  her  loss,  she  addressed  the  senators  with  calmness 
and  dignity,  herself  alone  apparently  unmoved  amid  the 
mourners  who  surrounded  her.  Havin"  thus  fulfilled  the 
lofty  duties  of  a  queen,  and  satisfied  the  paramount  claims 
of  royalty,  she  no  longer  struggled  against  nature  ;  but, 
abandoned  to  softer  and  more  womanly  emotions,  she  threw 
herself  upon  the  beloved,  though  lifeless  body,  and  refused 
to  quit  it  till  the  moment  of  interment,  which,  contrary  to 
usual  Italian  custom,  was  protracted,  at  her  desire,  beyond 
the  second  day.  In  a  few  months,  the  grave  terminated  her 
sorrows,  by  reuniting  her  to  that  husband  whose  attaching, 
no  less  than  commanding,  qualities  had  converted  a  mar- 

VOL.  II.— I 


r 
I  • 


-■-  •*-  -J-^Jfafcr' 


Tf 


98 


WAR  IN  GREECE. 


THE  TURKS  INVADE  FRIULI. 


99 


riage  originally  prompted  by  ambition,  into  a  bond  of  the 
most  ardent  reciprocal  afl'ection.* 

War  continued  to  rage  with  unmitigated  ferocity  in  the 
East ;  for,  altiiougli  Venice  anxiously  wished  to  disem- 
barrass herself  from  a  strujrjjle  whicli  exhausted  both  her 
blood  and  treasure  without  hope  of  advantage,  the  demands 
of  Mahomet  appeared  too  unreasonable  to  be  admitted  whilo 
there  was  any  chance  of  obtairiing  their  modification.  The 
Venetians,  after  disembarking  at  Aulis  (a  port  ennobled  in 
ancient  history  by  the  rendezvous  of  the  Grecian  fleet,  pre- 
paratory to  its  expedition  against  Troy),  and  descending  to 
the  Pineus,  attacked,  stormed,  and  pillaged  Athens ;  but 
this  short-lived  triumph  was  revenged,  on  the  recovery  of 
the  city,  by  the  empalement  of  a  ■pi-oooediture  captured 
during  its  siege,  and  a  hideous  slaughter  in  the  assault. 
Mantinea  was  once  more  deluged  witli  blood,  which  did  not 
now  flow  in  the  cause  of  freedom  ;  and  the  Venetians,  aban- 
donmg  the  continent,  concentrated  themselves  in  Negropont, 

suffering  and  inflicting  the  most  friijhtful  calamities. 
1470     "^'^^  narrow  strait  which  separates  that  island  from 

the  opposite  shore  of  Attica  was  crowded  with  a 
larger  fleet  than  had  filled  its  channel  since  the  invasion  of 
Xerxes ;  and  Mahomet  II.,  when  encamped  on  the  very 
promontory  which  had  been  occupied  by  the  Persion  tyrant, 
counted  from  his  pavilion  400  vessels  occupying  a  sea  line 
six  miles  in  length,  and  300,000  ment  marshalled  under  his 
banners.  The  strait  was  bridged  by  boats  ;  and  although  a 
feeble  attempt  was  made  by  the  Venetian  admiral  Canale 
to  relieve  the  ancient  Chalcis  (now  bearing  the  same  name 
as  the  island  itself),  he  retired  when  within  view  of  its 
eagerly  expecting  garrison,  not  without  imputation  of  cow- 
ardice, for  which  he  was  displaced  and  punished.  The  Ve- 
netians repulsed  five  assaults ;  the  sixth  was  fatal,  and  not 
one  of  its  defenders  survived  the  storm.  Mahomet  had  de- 
nounced death  against  every  soldier  who  should  spare  a  sin- 
gle prisoner  exceedmg  twenty  years  of  age,  and  the  slaugh- 

*  Simoneta,  apud  Muratori,  xxi.  77fi. 

t  Tlie  Turkish  force  probably  is  very  greatly  exagjjerated.  Ripalta 
(ap.  Muratori,  xx.  929)  raises  it  to  500,000.  Sabellico  (Dec.  iii.  lib  8) 
and  Cepio  (i.  p.  341)  descend  to  120,000,  and  Sanuto  (1190),  yet  lower,  to 
70,000;  but,  taken  at  the  very  lowest  estimate  which  has  ever  been  as- 
signed, It  most  fearfully  outuuinbered  the  Vcuciiaus. 


tcr  consequent  upon  that  menace  was  indiscriminate.  Even 
the  handful  of  brave  men  which  threw  itself  into  the  citadel 
was  massacred  after  capitulation ;  and  their  gallant  com- 
mander, Erizzo,  who  had  yielded  only  on  a  promise  that  his 
head  should  be  respected,  discovered,  too  late,  that  the  spirit 
of  the  savage  conqueror's  grant  of  immunity  differed  widely 
from  its  letter.  His  head,  indeed,  was  untouched,  but 
his  body  was  placed  beneath  the  saw,  and  he  expired  in 
torture.* 

The  conquest  of  Negropont  enabled  the  Turks  to  spread 
themselves  with  rapid  strides  over  the  Morca,  now  wholly 
defenceless  :  they  next  advanced  upon  Dalmatia,  rounded 
the  head  of  the  Adriatic,  penetrated  Friuli,  and  ravaged 
even  so  far  as  the  neighbourhood  of  Udino.  Their  fleet 
rode  triumphant ;  all  Europe  was  astonished  by  this  humili- 
ation of  Venice  upon  the  element  over  which,  with  few  ex- 
ceptions, she  had  hitherto  asserted  dominion  ;  and  the  sur- 
prise was  increased  by  the  extreme  suddenness  with  which 
the  Turkish  marine  had  acquired  its  superiority.  Italy  also 
was  struck  with  terror  by  the  irruption  of  fresh  barbarians 
upon  her  frontier.  At  the  close  of  their  foray,  the  war  was 
principally  transferred  to  Dalmatia,  and  raged  in  that  and 
adjoining  districts  during  six  years  of  misery  and  desola- 
tion. It  was  then  once  again  carried  into  Italy,  and  ex- 
tended almost  to  the  very  borders  of  the  Lagunc  ^  ^^ 
themselves.  The  Pacha  of  Bosnia,  again  enteriiig  j^'^y] 
Friuli,  surprised  the  Venetian  generals  by  rapid  q^j  * 
marches,  before  any  intelligence  of  his  advance  had 
been  received.  The  lines  constructed  on  that  frontier  since 
the  last  invasion,  if  properly  defended,  would  have  been 
impregnable  ;  but  the  troops  occupying  them  were  sunk  in 
idle  security  and  forgetfulncss  ;  the  Turks  swam  the  rivers 
or  mastered  the  bridges  :  and  their  light  cavalry,  having  de- 
feated, on  the  banks  of  the  Isonzo,  the  only  band  which 
made  head  against  them,  spread  themselves  over  the  whole 
plain  between  that  stream  and  the  Tagliamento.     Sabellico, 

(f  *  Dani  hesitates  respecting  the  truth  of  this  atrocious  perfidy,  and  ob- 
serves that  it  is  mentioned  neither  by  the  Turkish  historians,  nor,  a  far 
better  reason  for  disbelief,  bv  Sanuto.  Sabellico,  however,  records  it, 
and  adds  the  tyrant's  brutal  jest, '  Pollicitum  se  cemn  non  lateribus 
parsurum'  (iii.  8,  a'ljin.) ;  and  it  is  repeated  by  Sandi  (vui.  9).  tnhap- 
pily  such  cruelty  is  by  no  means  alien  from  either  the  national  or  toe 
personal  character  of  Mahomet. 


100 


SURRENDER  OF  CROYA. 


srEGE  OF  SCUTARI. 


101 


I 
\ 


who  at  the  moment  was  seeking  shelter  in  the  invaded  dis- 
trict from  the  plague,  at  nightfall  mounted  a  tower  near 
Udino,  and  from  its  summit  beheld  a  hundred  villages  in 
flames.  On  the  next  morning,  the  Tagliamento  was  crossed, 
and  the  fires  of  the  succeeding  night  were  visible  even  from 
the  Campanile  of  St.  Mark's.  After  those  acts  of  destruc- 
tion, the  marauders,  prepared  solely  for  ravage,  and  content 
with  the  terror  which  they  had  inspired,  withdrew  upon 
Dalmatia  before  any  new  force  could  be  assembled  to  con- 
front them. 

In  that  country,  so  often  desolated  by  war,  the  Venetians 
suffered  a  heavy  loss.  Oroya,  now  a  miserable  village,  but 
once  the  capital  of  the  heroic  Scanderbeg,*  and  transferred 
by  him  before  his  death  to  the  signory,  capitulated  from 
want  of  supplies,  after  investment  for  a  whole  year  and  a 
patient  endurance  of  the  bitterest  privations.  The 
j^^g  sultan,  in  an  express  instrument  attested  by  his  own 
signet,  guarantied  safe-conduct  to  such  of  its  inhab- 
itants as  wished  to  quit  the  city,  and  protection  to  all  others 
who  would  remain  in  it  under  the  Turkish  government. 
To  a  man,  they  preferred  emigration,  satisfied  with  what- 
ever new  seats  Venice  might  provide  for  their  allotment. 
The  princely  abode  of  the  Oastriots  was  abandoned  by  its 
native  guardians;  and  the  gates  at  which  the  victorious 
progress  of  Amurath  had  been  checked,  and  his  days  prob- 
ably shortened  by  the  chagrin  which  their  successful  re- 
sistance occasioned,  were  now  opened  to  his  more  fortunate 
son.  Twenty  years  after  the  death  of  Scanderbeg,  his 
surviving  companions  committed  themselves  to  the  ambi- 
guous fidelity  of  the  Ottomans,  not  till  then  their  con- 
querors ;  and  in  spite  of  the  solemn  pledge  which  Mahomet 
had  given,  no  sooner  were  they  within  his  power  than  he 
delivered  them  to  the  executioner. 

Scutari,  from  its  great  strength,  the  almost  spontaneous 
fertility  of  its  adjacent  country,  and  the  forests  well  adapted 
for  ship-timber  by  which  it  was  encompassed,  offered  an 
important  station  to  Mahomet,  panting  for  means  to  estab- 

*  It  is  not  in  this  place  that  the  exploits  of  that  most  extraordinary 
man  can  be  introduced  with  propriety.  Gibbon  has  condensed  them  into 
the  narrow  compass  of  half  a  dozen  pages,  in  which  they  are  but  mistily 
narrated,  with  great  inclination  to  undervalue  the  Christian  hero.— fCh. 
livii.)  ^ 


Ksh  himself  on  the  opposite  coast  of  Itaiy  ;  and  it  had 
already  been  unsuccessfully  invested.  Even  before  the  fall 
of  Oroya,  preparations  on  a  far  larger  scale  than  had  been 
employed  at  first  were  made  for  a  renewal  of  the  siege. 
After  Ihe  close  of  the  war,  Sabellico  was  assured  by  eye- 
witnesses that  not  a  spot  of  ground  was  to  be  discovered 
from  the  battlements  of  that  city,  far  as  sight  could  range 
across  the  plain  or  up  the  mountains,  which  did  not  teem 
with  armed  men,  tents,  and  artillery  ;  and  to  oppose  this 
gigantic  force,  Scutari,  one  of  the  strongest  Venetian  de- 
pendencies, and  even  in  our  own  days  containing  12,000 
inhabitants,  counted  within  her  walls  no  more  than  600 
mercenaries,  1600  citizens,  and  250  women.  A  breach  was 
soon  effected,  and  the  Turks  were  twice  led  to  the  assault. 
On  the  second  attack,  Mahomet,  careless  how  many  lives  he 
sacrificed  if  success  were  but  attained,  disposed  his  80,000 
troops  in  four  separate  divisions,  with  orders  to  relieve  each 
other  at  intervals  of  six  hours  ;  and  thus  to  exhaust  the 
garrison  by  the  mere  pressure  of  numbers  continually  re- 
newed. Slender  as  was  the  A^cnetian  force  even  when 
mustered  entire,  Antonio  de'  I^azzi,  its  brave  commander, 
when  apprized  of  the  enemy's  intention,  determined  to 
meet  it  by  a  similar  arrangement ;  and  while  a  single  small 
detachment  manned  the  ramparts,  three  others  were  posted 
in  reserve.  The  assault  commehced  before  daybreak,  and 
as  evening  closed,  fresh  battalions  continued  to  press 
forward  over  the  corpses  of  their  fallen  comrades,  without 
planting  one  foot  within  the  walls.  During  the  whole 
night  and  the  greater  part  of  the  following  day,  the  combat 
raged  unabatedly,  till  Mahomet,  warned  that  he  could  no 
longer  depend  upon  his  troops,  who  began  to  murmur  at 
being  led  to  certain  and  unavailing  slaughter,  reluctantly 
withdrew,  with  the  loss  of  a  third  of  his  army,  and  converted 
the  siege  into  a  blockade.  The  uninterraitted  sleet  of 
arrows,  covered  by  which  the  assailants  advanced  to  this 
memorable  storm,  is  mentioned  by  contemporary  historians 
as  one  of  its  greatest  terrors.  A  miserable  cat,  scared  from . 
her  hiding-place  by  the  war-cries,  fell  pierced  by  eleven 
shafls  at  once  ;  three  or  four  arrows  were  in  many  places 
found  transfixing  each  other ;  and  for  several  months  after 
the  retreat  of  the  Ottomans,  the  baths,  kitchens,  and  bake- 
houses were  supplied  with  no  other  fuel  than  the  wood 

13 


i:  jiL^'fc-  T 


102 


PLAGUE    IN   ITALY. 


A.    D. 

1478. 


which  these  weapons  afforded.*  Durinor  the  subsequent 
blockade,  the  chief  sulTerings  of  the  inhabitants  arose  from 
scarcity  of  water ;  and,  on  one  occasion,  resolutely  bent 
upon  procuring  a  supply  at  every  hazard,  they  sallied  down 
in  a  mass  upon  the  lake  which  approached  their  western 
ramparts.  Four  hundred  men  carried  skins  and  buckets, 
the  rest  formed  their  escort ;  and  as  they  fought  their  way 
back  to  the  walls,  the  favourite  project  of  Mahomet  and  his 
ultimate  hopes  of  the  conquest  of  Italy  were  sufficiently 
announced,  by  fierce  shouts  which  burst  from  the  camp. 
*'  Scutari,  Scutari ! — Roma,  Roma  /"f 

Italy  indeed  was  once  again  to  be  desolated  by  these  phm- 
dering  hordes,  but  not  till  she  had  encountered  other  suffer- 
ings beforehand.  In  their  former  incursions  the  Turks  had 
left  behind  them  the  seeds  of  pestilence,  and  these 
it  is  said  were  increased  by  a  descent  of  locusts, 
which  in  the  summer  of  1478  swarmed  over  a  space 
30  miles  in  length  and  20  in  breadth,  in  the  territories  of 
Mantua  and  Brescia.  The  peasants  employed  in  the  de- 
struction of  these  formidable  insects  neglected  to  bury  ther^, 
and  the  miasma  generated  by  their  putrefaction,  spread 
rapidly  from  Lombardy  even  to  Florence  and  to  Venice.  So 
great  was  the  mortality  in  the  latter  city  that  the  councils 
broke  up  their  sittings,  and  the  nobles  sought  safety  in  dis- 
persion. The  doge  himself  was  among  the  victims,  and  the 
reign  of  his  successor  Giovanni  Moncenigo  conunenced 
under  the  accumulated  calamities  of  plague,  famine,  a  de- 
structive fire  which  consumed  parts  of  the  ducal  palace  and 
of  St.  Marks,  and  a  new  invasion  of  Friuli  by  the  Ottomans. 
Schooled,  however,  by  their  former  disasters,  the  Venetian 
generals  were  now  amply  prepared ;  and  instead  of  taking  the 
field,  they  prudently  remained  unmoved  within  their  lines, 
which  defied  all  attack  ;  till  the  marauders,  wearied  by  in- 
activity, ami  hopeless  of  provolving  battle,  retired  by  the 
mountains  of  Carniola.  Marvellous  stories  were  recounted 
of  their  retreat  among  these  Alps.  Thirty  thousand  cav- 
alry were  said  to  have  penetrated  through  defiles  which  the 
natives  themselves  seldom  dared  to  attempt ;  and  in  more 
than  one  spot,  when  a  pathless  abyss  appeared  to  forbid  de- 
scent, the  horses  were  lowered  by  ropes  amid  the  precipices, 


Sabellico. 


t  Sanuto,  1200. 


•V 


PEACE,  AND  CESSION  OF  SCUTARL 


103 


from  height  to  height  till  they  securely  reached  the  under- 
most valley. 

Peace  was  now  coveted  at  almost  any  sacrifice.     The  de- 
fence of  Friuli  and  Albania  at  the  same  moment  distracted 
and  exhausted  the  resources  of  tlie  state  ;  new  interests  in 
Cyprus  demanded  vigilance  ;    growing   agitations  among 
neighbouring  Italian  powers  excited  well-grounded  alarm ; 
and  no  European  ally  appeared  willing  or  prepared  to  grant 
active  assistance.     Advices  had  been  received  from  Scutari 
that  but  a  few  months'  provisions  remained  to  its  diminished 
garrison,  which  it  was  impossible  either  to  recruit  or  to  re- 
lieve ;  and  it  was  determined  therefore  to  take  advantage  of 
the  cession  of  that  hardly-contested  city  while  it  was  yet 
available  for  negotiation.     The  demands  of  Mahomet  had 
not  increased  in  rigour ;  but  they  were  still  oppres- 
sive to  the  treasury  and  galling  to  the  pride  of  Venice.    ,^'^' 
Negropont,  Lemnos,  and  Scutari  were  to  be  trans- 
ferred  to  the  Turks  ;   100,000  ducats  were  to  be  paid  imme- 
diately as  an  indemnity  ;  exclusively  of  an  annual  tribute  of 
10,000  more,  the  disgrace  of  which  was  to  be  concealed 
under  the  name  of  a  commutation  for  mercantile  duties  and 
customs.     When  the  gates  of  Scutari  were  opened  to  its 
new  lords,  there  issued  from  them  450  men  and  150  women, 
the  melancholy  remnant  of  nearly  2,500  souls  at  the  com- 
mencement of  the  siege.     They  were  distributed  by  the 
signory  of  Venice  through  various  parts  of  its  territory, 
and  rewarded,  as  their  rare  fidelity  well  deserved,  either  by 
public  charges  or  by  allowances  from  the  state. 


41^ 


104 


MARRIAGE  OF  CATARINA  CoRNARO 


WITH  THE  KING  OF  CYPRUS. 


105 


CHAPTER  XIV. 

FROM  A.  D.  1464   TO    A.  D.  1508. 

Giacopo  Lusignano  usurps  the  Crown  of  Cyprus— lie  marries  Catarina 
Coriiaro— His  Death— Insurrection  of  the  Cypriois— Deposition  of 
Queen  Catarina— Cyprus  becomes  a  Trovince  of  Venice— The  Turks 
sack  Otranto— Lodovico  the  More  usurps  the  Crown  of  Milan— In- 
vites the  French  into  Italy— Invasion  of  Charles  VIII.— He  conquers 
Naples— Embassy  of  Philippe  de  Comines  to  Venice— Retreat  of  the 
French— Hattle  of  Fornovo— Victory  claimed  by  the  Venetians— De- 
thronement and  Captivity  of  Lodovico  Sforza— Wealth  and  Dominion 
of  Venice  at  the  close  of  the  Fifteenth  Century— War  with  the  I'^m- 
peror—TiUie— Jealousy  of  the  great  European  Powers. 


A.    D. 


DOGES. 

Christoforo  Moro. 
NicoLo  Moro. 
NlCOLO  Marcello. 

PlETRO    MONCENIGO. 

Andrea  Vendramino. 

Giovanni  Moncenigo. 
14R5.     Lxxv.  Marco  Barbarigo. 
1486.    Lxxvi.  AuGUSTiNO  Barbarigo. 
1501.  Lxxvir.  Leonardo  Loredano. 


During  this  long  and  perilous  war  with  the  Ottoman 
sultan,  Venice  prepared  the  way  for  an  important  acquisi- 
tion, first  by  a  dark  course  of  intrigue,  ultimately  by  com- 
plicated injustice.  The  crown  of  Cyprus  had  been  worn 
for  nearly  two  centuries  and  a  half  by  the  family  of  Lusig- 
nano,  when  in  1458  it  was'wrested  by  Giacopo,  a  bastard  of 
the  fourteenth  prince  of  that  illustrious  line,  from  the  right- 
ful heiress,  his  legitimate  sister.  The  new  king  had  been 
attached  from  early  youth  to  Catarina,  niece  of  Andr6<» 
Comaro,  a  Venetian  noble  resident  on  his  Cypriote  estate  ; 
and  no  sooner  was  he  freed  from  certain  political  and  do- 
mestic obstacles  than  he  tendered  his  hand  to  that  lady.  In 
order  to  satisfy  the  rigid  law  which  forbade  the  marriage  of 


* 


ii- 


any  Venetian  of  noble  birth  with  a  foreigner,*  the  destined 
royal  bride  was  solemnly  adopted  by  the  state,  and  declared 
a  daughter  of  St.  Mark  ;  she  was  then  married  by  proxv 
m  the  presence  of  the  doge  and  signory,  conducted  by  the 
Bucentaur  to  the  galley  which  awaited  her  in  the  port,  and 
escorted  by  a  squadron  of  ships  of  war,  with  becoming 
pomp  and  a  portion  of  100,000  ducats,  to  the  territories  of 
her  husband. 

The  Venetian  government  doubtless  foresaw  numerous 
advantages  likely  to  arise  from  this   connexion,  but  they 
could  scarcely  calculate  upon  the  splendid  prize  which  it 
was  finally  to  place  within  their  grasp.     It  was  no  small 
gam  to  open  freely  to  their  commerce  an  island  which,  after 
SiciJy  and  Sardinia,  ranked  as  the  largest  in  the  Mediterra- 
nean;  whose  delicious  climate  and  fertile  soil  produced 
wine,  oil,  and  grain  in  profusion  ;  the  richness  of  whose 
mines  of  copper  was  announced  by  its  very  name  •    and 
whose  position,  with  regard  to  Syria,  Egypt,  and  Asia  Mi- 
nor, offered  unequalled  facilities  for  the  profitable  interme- 
diate traffic  between  Europe  and  the  East.     Giacopo  Lusicr- 
nano  after  his  marriage  cultivated  intimate  relations  witli 
the  republic  of  which  he  had  become  the  son-in-law  ;  he 
assisted  her  in  the  Turkish  war,  and  his  ports  were 
always  thronged  by  her  vessels.     At  his  death,  which     \^' 
occurred  within  two  years  after  this  alliance,  he  be-    ^^''^' 
queathed  his  kingdom  to  the  infant  of  which  Catarina  was 
then  pregnant ;  and  in  failure  of  her  issue,  to  three  illegiti- 
mate children,  a  daughter  and  two  sons,  successively  in 
order  of  primogeniture.     Sabellico  relates   a  conversation 
with  the  Venetian  admiral  Moncenigo,  in  which  the  dying 
prince  consigned  his   queen  and  kingdom  to  the  especial 
protection  of  the  republic  ;  a  legacy  which  it  will  be  seen 
Venice  was  not  backward  to  accept. 

Moncenigo  proclaimed  Catarina  queen,  and  together  with 
the  provveditori  who  accompanied  him,  held  at  the  baptismal 
font  the  son  of  whom  she  was  soon  afterward  delivered.  He 
then  resumed  his  station  in  the  neighbouring  seas  ;  and  his 

*This  law  appears  to  hare  been  framed  ki  order  to  continue  the 
wealth  of  noble  families  within  national  channels  ;  and  as  it  regarded 
fcreign  princes,  it  was  in  strict  accordance  with  the  general  policy 
of  Venice,  which  forbade  all  communication  between  them  and  her 
Bobility. 


^ 


# 


Tf 


f--'-  ^-'-»Wd>tttei^ 


106 


REVOLT  OF  CYPRUS. 


VENICE  LAYS  CLALM  TO  CYPRUS. 


107 


departure  was  the  signal  for  revolt  to  those  Cypriots  who, 
in  a  closer  connexion  with  Venice,  too  truly  anticipated  the 
loss  of  national  independence.     A  numerous  party  of  the 
nobles  addressed  themselves  to  Ferdinand  of  Naples,  the 
most  deadly  and  the  most  ambitious  foe  of  the  republic ; 
and  proposed  to  him  a  marriage  between  his  bastard  son 
Alfonso  and  the  bastard  daughter  of  their  own  late  king. 
Both  the  children  were  of  immature  age,  but  the  Cypriots 
pledt^ed  themselves  that  the  crown  should  devolve  upon 
theni  jointly,  at  the  attainment  of  majority.     Fortified  by 
tliis  strontT  alliance,  they  proceeded  to  scatter  ambiguous 
reports  anfong  the  populace  ;  and  darkly  to  imply  that  Cor- 
naro  and  Marco  Bembo,  the  micle  and  cousin  of  the  queen, 
liad  poisoned  the  late  king  in  order  to  transfer  the  sove- 
reignty to  her  single  hand.     The  imputation  found  ready 
belief;  and  the  citizens  of  the  capital,  stimulated  to  vio- 
lence by  these  rumours,  assembled  by  night,  assassinated  the 
accused  Venetians  and  the  royal  physician,  who  was  de- 
nounced as  their  instrument ;  besieged  the  palace  ;  and  se- 
cured the  persons  of  Catarina  and  her  son.     They  then 
announced  the  concerted  alliance  with  Naples,  and  invested 
the  future  bridegroom  with  the  title  of  Prince  of  Gahlee,  a 
ditrnity  never  hitherto  bestowed  except  on  the  presumptive 
heir  to  the  crown.     No  sooner,  however,  were  these  tidings 
conveyed  to    Moncenigo  than  he  gathered  his    scattered 
cruisers,  summoned  troops  from  Candia,  and  repaired  to 
Nicosia  with  eager  haste  and  an  overpowering  force.     His 
unexpected  arrival  struck  terror  into  the  insurgents  ;  some 
of  the  leaders,  dissembling  their  real  motives,  represented 
the  murder  of  Cornaro  as  an  act  of  the  mutinous  soldiery, 
whose  pay  he  had  kept  in  arrcar,  and  disclaimed  all  hos- 
tility against  Venice  ;  others  fled  for  refuge  to  the  moun- 
tains, or  sought  escape  by  sea.     On  their  dispersion  the 
chief  towns  were  occupied  by  Venetian  garrisons  ;   those 
revolters  against  whom  evidence  could  be  obtained  under- 
went capital  punishment ;  and  Catarina,  restored  to  nomi- 
nal power,  became  in  truth  the  vice-queen  of  the  signory. 
Fifteen  years  had  now  passed,  during  which  the  signory 
had  governed  Cyprus  under  the  name  of  Catarina, 
\\^'     whose  son  died  not  long  after  his  birth  ;  and  the 
^^^       islanders  who  at  first  chafed  beneath  the  yoke  of  the 
republic,  and  earnestly  sought  to  transfer  their  allegiance  to 


f 


Naples,  had  now  become  accustomed  to  their  virtual  mas- 
ters.     1  here  were  contingencies,  nevertheless,  not  likely  to 
escape  the  sagacity  of  Venice,  by  which  some  other  hand, 
alter  all  her  ong  intrigue,  might  perhaps  gather  its  fruits. 
Catarina  still  maintained  more  than  ordinary  beauty  ;  and 
her  picture,  m  widow's  weeds  (even  now  glowing  with 
almost  original  fi-eshness  among  the  treasures  of  the  Pala--o 
Manfnm)y  was  one  of  the  earliest  great  works  of  Titian  * 
which,  both  from  the  skill  of  the  artist  and  the  loveliness  of 
the  subject,  extended  his  growing  fame  beyond  the  borders 
ot  the  Lagune.  With  so  great  attractions,  coupled  to  the  rich 
dowry  of  a  kingdom,  it  was  not  probable  that  the  Queen  of 
Cyprus  would  long  remain  without  suitors  ;  and  rumour 
already  declared  her  to  be  the  intended  bride  of  Frederic,  a 
son  of  the  King  of  Naples.     If  she  married  and  bore  chil- 
dren,  Cyprus  would  become  their  inheritance  ;  and  to  pre- 
vent the  possibility  of  such  an  extinction  of  their  hopes,  the 
\  enetian  government  resolved  to  assume  its  soverei<rntY 
directly  in  their  own  persons.     The  civilians,  therefore, 
were  instructed  to  avouch  the  legitimacy  of  this  claim ;  and 
they  declared,  perhaps  with  less  sincerity  than  solemnity, 
that  the   son  of  Giacopo  Lusignano  inherited  the  crown 
from  his  father  ;  that  since  he  died  a  minor,  his  mother  in- 
herited from  him  ;  and  that  finally  Venice  inherited  from 
his  mother,  an  adopted  daughter  of  St.  Mark. 

Giorgio  Cornaro,  a  brother  of  the  queen,  was  solicited  to 
conduct  the  ungrateful  process  of  her  deposition.  To  his 
representations,— that  by  abandoning  the  care  of  a  turbulent 
kingdom,  and  returning  to  her  native  land,  in  which  she 
might  pass  the  remainder  of  her  life  tranquilly  and  securely, 
among  those  bound  to  her  by  natural  ties,  she  would  far 
more  consult  her  happiness  than  by  remaining  exposed  iji 
a  remote  and  foreign  country  to  the  hazards  of  its  ambigu- 
ous friendship,— she  replied  with  confidence,  that  th?re 
was  little  which  could  allure  a  woman  environed  with  the 
splendour  of  royalty  and  the  observance  of  a  court,  to  de- 
scend to  the  parsimonious  habits  and  undistinguished  level 
ol  a  republican  life  ;  and  that  it  would  please  her  far  bettor 


i^aLj^**jtfai*.  .1  —J 


.*l 


108 


DEPOSITION  OF  CATARINA. 


if  the  signory  would  await  her  decease  before  they  occupied 
her  possessions.*     But  to  arguments  explanatory  of  the 
will,  the  power,  and  the  inflexibility  of  the  senate,  it  was 
not  easy  to  find  an  adequate  answer  ;  and  the  natural  elo' 
quenccj  as  the  historian  styles  it,  of  her  brother,  ultimately 
prevailed.     "  If  such,"  she  observed,  as  soon  as  tears  per- 
mitted speech,  "  be  your  opinion,  such  also  shall  be  mine  ; 
nevertheless,  it  id  more  from  you  than  from  myself  that  our 
country  will  obtain  a  kingdom."!     Having  thus  reluctantly 
consented,  after  a  few  days'  delay  she  commenced  her  pro- 
gress to  Famagosta;    royal  honours   attended  her  every- 
where afe  she  passed,  and  on  the  6th  of  February  she  signed 
a  formal  act  of  abdication,  in  the  presence  of  her  council ; 
attended  a  solemn  mass,  at  which  the  banner  of  St.  Mark 
was  consecrated  ;  delivered  that  standard  to  the  charge  of 
the  Venetian  general ;  and  saw  it  raised  above  her  own  on 
the  towers  of  the  citadel.     On  the  approach  of  summer, 
she  embarked  for  Venice,  where  she  was  received  as  a 
crowned  head  by  the  doge  and  signory  ;  and  in  return  for 
the  surrender  of  her  sceptre,  she  enjoyed  a  privilege  never 
before  or  since  accorded  to  any  of  her  countrywomen, — a 
triumphal  entry  to  St.  Mark's  Piazcetta,  on  the  deck  of  the 
Bucentaur.     A  revenue  of  8000  ducats  was  assigned  her 
for  life  ;  and  the  delights  of  the  "  Paradise"  of  Asola,  in 
the  Trevisan  mountains,  in  which  the  unqueened  queen 
continued  to  assemble  her  little  court,  have  been  immortal- 
ized by  a  volume  long  among  the  most  popular  works  of 
early  Italian   literature ;    and   graced  by  the  poetry,  the 
sentiment,  the  piety,  and  the  metaphysics  of  the  illustrious 
historian  from  whom  we  have  borrowed  our  narrative  of 
Catarina's  dethronement. t 

*  Bembo,  1st.  Venet.  I.  ad  ann.  t  Jd-  J^i^- 

X  The  Asolani  of  Cardinal  Bembo  were  first  published  by  Aldus  in 
1505,  and  they  v\'ere  reprinted  eighteen  times  before  the  close  of  the 
sixteenth  century.  His  biographer,Giovanni  Casa,  thus  speaks  of  their 
great  popularity.  Eos  libros  tantd  fiominum,  midierum  etiam,  medius 
Jidlus,  ajtyrobatione  et  tanqiiam  plausu  exceptos  recmtes  esse  memini- 
mus,  ut  extempld  cuncta  eos  Italia  cupidissime  lectitdrit  atque  didi- 
cerit ;  ut  n<m  satis  tirbani  aut  elegantes  n  haberentur  quibus  AsiilancB 
ill<B  DispnUationes  essent  mcognitcB.—Vit.  Bemhi,  p.  143.  The  theme 
of  these  dialogues  is  love,  but  thev  are  wholly  free  from  the  impurities 
which  unhappily  ilefile  some  of  their  author's  early  poems.  The  scene 
is  laid  at  Asola,  where  a  large  company  is  assembled  to  celebrate  the 
nui)tialB  of  a  favourite  attendant  of  the  Queen  of  Cyprus.  The  disputa- 
tions, intermixed  with  canzonit  occupy  iliree  days,  on  tbe  firbt  of  which 


INTRODrcTION  OF  SMALL  ARMS. 


109 


It  IS  to  the  year  following  the  incorporation  of  Cyprus 
with  the  dominions  of  the  republic,  that  Bembo, 
who,  as  public  historiographer  now  takes  up  the       ^'  °* 
thread  of  Sabellico's  narrative,  assicrns  the  intro-     ^^^^' 
duction  of  small  arms  into  the  Ven'etian  military  service. 
Jlis  minute  description  sufficiently  avouches  the  novelty  of 
the  invention,  and  it  somewhat  resembles  that  account  of 
the  first  employment  of  artillery,  which  in  a  former  pa^e* 
we  have  extracted  from  Redusio.     The  usage  of  iron  tubes, 
says  the  historian,  transmitted  to  us  from  Germany,  is  be- 
coming  prevalent  among  our  soldiery.     These  tubes  by  the 
torce  of  fire  discharge  leaden  bullets  with  extraordinary 
violence,  and  wound  from  a  distance ;  they  are  of  the  same 
Shape  and   form  as  cannon  by  which  walls   are  battered: 
with  this  diftcrenoe,  however,  that  the  latter  are  cast  from 
brass,  and  are  often  of  so  great  weight  as  to  require  solid 
and  iron-bound  carriages  and  a  vast  number  of  horses  for 
their  transport ;  the  tubes,  on  the  other  hand,  are  made  of 
iron  fixed  to  a  wooden  butt,  so  that  one  may  be  handled  bv 
ev-ery  soldier  singly.     They  are   loaded  with  gunpowder 
which  is  easily  kindled,  and  when  the  bullet   has   been 
rammed  down,  they  are  discharged  from  the  shoulder.     The 
1  en,  anxious  to  obtain  a  supply  of  men  skilled  in  these 
weapons,  have  collected  from  all  quarters  persons  who  are 
masters  of  their  use,  and  have  sent  them  into  difierent 
towns  to  mstruct  our  youth.     For  the  encouragement  also 
ot  peasants  m  this  training,  they  have  decreed  that  in  every 
village  two  adults  shall  devote  themselves  to  the  acquire- 
ment  of  this  exercise,  who  in  consequence  shall  be  relieved 
trom  all  other  public  burdens  :  and  furthermore,  that  every 
year  there  shall  be  a  general  assembly  of  these  marksmen, 
at  some  spot  fixed  among  themselves,  for  a  shooting  match 
at  a  target ;  in  which  the  victor's  prize  shall  be  a' similar 
immunity  to  that  possessed  by  himself  for  all  his  townsmen, 
during  the  following  year,  with  the  single  exception  of  such 
labours  as  are  enjoined  for  turning  the  course  of  the  Brenta.f 

second"  Sn'nff?"r°'  fl"^^  ^^^""^  ^^^  gentle 'passion  ;  on  the 
fhSPrr'^^.v''^'^' '*"?""=  Lavincllo  appears  as  moderator  on 

from  earthlv^f?  .  T  ?'''/  ''''"??'^  ^''^""^^  ^^^  "'""^^^^  ^f  the  auditors 
irom  earthly  affections  to  Amur  Divino. 

*  Vol.  i.  p.  212. 

the  English  '^pi^!:f- '-  "^  ^^^    'r*^^  ''^^''  ^»"  ^»  «"<*  ^^ »°  mind 
Vol.  II.— K 


'^.4>*V-«"Mth. 


\ 


110 


SACK  OF  OTRANTO  BY  THE  TURKS. 


The  affairs  of  Cyprus  have  anticipated  our  Italian  nar- 
rative by  a  few  years,  but  henceforward  there  will  be  many 
periods  over  which  we  shall  hasten  with  far  greater  rapidity 
than  we  have  hitherto  ventured  to  employ.  Our  Sketches 
are  not  designed  for  more  than  illustrations  of  national 
chftracter ;  and  as  Venice,  by  her  growing  continental  ac- 
quisitions, became  more  and  more  involved  in  the  labyrinth 
of  general  European  politics,  so  did  she  cease  to  retain 
many  of  those  peculiarities  which  in  her  earlier  course 
stamped  her  so  deeply  with  an  impress  of  individuality. 
That  which  may  be  better  obtained  from  other  and  professed 
histories  we  shall  therefore  touch  but  lightly,  if  at  all ;  re- 
stricting ourselves  to  such  matters  as  belong  absolutely  to 
the  republic  herself. 

There  is  little  which  need  detain  us  in  the  fifteen  years 
which  succeeded  the  Turkish  war  ;  they  were  spent,  for  the 
most  part,  in  unceasing  disputes  and  occasional  direct  hos- 
tihties  with  Ferdinand  of  Naples,  and  his  son-in-law  the 
Duke  of  Ferrara.  One  event,  however,  which  occurred  be- 
fore the  commencement  of  any  open  struggle,  and  which 
naturally  confirmed  the  animosity  of  Ferdinand,  is  far  too 
remarkable  to  be  passed  in  silence.  Within  a  year 
after  the  conclusion  of  peace  with  Mahomet  II.,  a 
Venetian  ambassador  was  despatched  to  Constanti- 
nople, inviting  the  Turks  to  a  descent  upon  the  coast  of 
Apuglia  ;  on  which  it  was  supposed  that  Ferdinand  wa? 
chiefly  vulnerable,  and  which  Mahomet  was  instructed  to 
claim  as  an  ancient  possession  of  the  Greek  empire.  A 
hundred  Turkish  ships  of  war  were  accordingly  assembled 
in  the  ports  of  Albania ;  sixty  Venetian  galleys  distantly 
observed  them,  and  betrayed  their  connivance  by  permitting 
a  disembarkation  at  Otranto.  The  result  was  most  calam- 
itous ;  after  a  fortnight's  siege,  the  city  was  stormed, 
11,000  souls  perished  in  the  assault,  and  as  many  more 
were  reduced  to  slavery.  Among  the  victims  to  the  Otto- 
man fury  on  this  disastrous  occasion  were  800  ecclesiastics, 
whose  massacre  has  furnished  a  copious  theme  for  legend- 
ary invention.  Francesco-Maria  di  Asti,  archbishop  of  the 
see  so  late  as  the  commencement  of  the  eighteenth  century, 
published  the  annals  of  his  diocess,  which  but  for  this  mosi 
terrific  martyrdom  and  its  accompaniments,  would  afford  a 
very  meager  nnrrative.     One  priest  named  Stephen,  ap- 


A.  D. 

1480. 


LEGEND  OF  THE  PRIESTS  OF  OTRANTO.        Ill 

pears  to  have  been  slain  while  ministering  at  the  altar,  and 
a  portrait  of  the  Virgin,  attributed  to  the  pencil  of  St.  Luke, 
vanished  for  ever  from  the  church  at  the  moment  of  his  death. 
His  brethren  were  led  without  the  walls,  chanting  hymns  and 
spiritual  songs,  and  Antonio  Primaldo,  their  abbot,  was  the 
first  who  was  put  to  the  sword.  His  head  rolled  from  his 
shoulders,  but  his  body,  notwithstanding  the  repeated  efforts 
of  the  executioner  to  overthrow  it,  obstinately  persisted  in 
remaining  upright  till  the  last  of  his  comrades  was  lifeless. 
The  corpses,  although  unburied  for  thirteen  months,  showed 
no  signs  of  corruption,  and  remained  inviolate  by  birds  and 
beasts  of  prey.  After  their  subsequent  honourable  inter- 
ment, part  of  their  relics  was  transported  to  Nai)lcs,  part 
remained  within  their  native  city,  greatly  to  its  advantage. 
So  potent  was  tbeir  virtue,  that  they  twice  preserved 
Otranto  from  violence  similar  to  that  by  which  the  saints 
themselves  had  perished.  When  Solyman  the  Magnificent 
threatened  the  coast  in  1 537,  he  was  astonished  by  these 
martyrs,  who,  gifted  with  a  power  of  supernatural  multi- 
plication, presented  themselves  upon  the  ramparts  under 
the  guise  of  innumerable  armed  men.  A  like  ghostly  array 
averted  another  Turkish  invasion  in  1644  ;  and  the  marvel 
was  then  increased  by  being  visible  to  none  but  infidel  eyes. 
The  Christian  galley-slaves  who  rowed  the  Ottoman  vessels 
denied  the  existence  of  the  spiritual  hosts  which  terrified 
the  unbelievers,  and  they  were  ruthlessly  put  to  death  by 
their  masters  for  this  want  of  clear-sightedness.* 

Rome  was  filled  with  consternation  by  this  unexpected 
irruption  of  barbarians  which  appeared  to  threaten  her  own 
safety;  and  the  pope  meditated  an  abandonment  of  his 
capital  and  a  retreat  to  France.  But  the  Turks  were  un- 
able to  improve  their  first  success  ;  the  whole  south  of  Italy 
rose  in  arms  for  their  expulsion ;  the  death  of  Mahomet  in 
the  following  year  prevented  them  from  receiving  support ; 
and  the  conqueror  of  Otranto,  who  had  effected  nothing 
farther  than  the  ravage  of  its  immediate  neighbourhood, 
and  an  incursion  upon  Brindisi,  accepted  an  honourable 
capitulation.! 

*  In  Memorabilibns  Hiidrun'iruB  EccL  Epitome,  ap.  Burmanni 
Thesaur.  Antiq.  et  Hist.  Ifal.  torn.  ix.  p.  8. 

t  Disgraceful  as  was  this  conspiracy  between  Venice  and  the  Turks, 
U  was  exceeded  in  wickedness  by  tlie  conduct  of  Alexander  VI.  in  1494, 


1 


t^^ 


112 


LODOVICO  SFORZA  INVITES 


The  accession  of  Alexantler  VI.  strengthened  former 
amicahle  relations  between  Venice  and  the  holy  see  ;  and 
in  1493  a  triple  alliance  was  signed  by  the  pope,  the 
signory,  and  Milan,  expressly  to  counterpoise  the  increasing 
predominance  of  Naples.  In  Milan,  the  power  consolidated 
by  the  wisdom  of  Francesco  Sforza  was  now  beginning  to 
decline.  His  successor,  in  spite  of  his  weakness  and  his 
crimes,  had  reigned  in  tranquillity,  mainly  preserved  by  the 
remembrance  of  his  father's  greatness  ;  but,  upon  his  death, 
the  virtual  government  was  usurped  from  his  infant  son, 
by  the  regent,  an  ambitious  uncle,  known  in  history  as 
Lodovico  the  More  ;*  to  whose  ripening  views  upon  the 
throne  itself  the  support  and  acknowledgment  of  Venice 
became  of  paramount  importance.  Nevertheless  even  after 
the  conclusion  of  that  treaty,  Lodovico  Sforza  felt  little 
confidence  in  his  new  allies  ;  for  Venice  was  the  hereditary 
enemy  of  his  family,  and  the  treachery  and  recklessness  of 
crime  which  have  rendered  the  name  of  Alexander  VI.  a 
by-word  in  history  had  already  displayed  themselves  in 
more  than  a  single  instance.  Agitated  by  such  doubts, 
and  feeling  the  strong  necessity  of  arming  himself  yet  more 
completely  against  the  watchful  jealousy  of  Naples,  if  he 
persisted  in  the  meditated  seizure  of  his  nephew's  crown, 
the  regent  of  Milan  sought  friends  beyond  the  Alps  ;  and 
readily  captivated  a  young,  vain,  and  thoughtless  monarch 
by  the  allurement  of  a  brilliant  expedition  and  the  probable 
conquest  of  a  rich  dominion.     Charles  VIII.  of  France 

when  alarmed  at  the  approach  of  Charles  VIII.  If  the  documents  rela- 
tive to  the  negotiation  were  not  even  now  extant,  it  would  scarcely  bo 
believed  that  the  head  of  the  Christian  church  invited  a  horde  of  bar- 
barian infidels  to  overrun  Italy,  in  order  that  he  might  achieve  the  ruin 
of  the  eldest  son  of  that  church.  The  instructions  of  Alexander  to  his 
nuncio  at  Constantinople,  and  the  letters  of  Sultan  Bajazet  II.  in  reply, 
are  printed  in  Preuves  ct  Illustrations  mix  Memoires  de  Philippe  de 
Comines,  p.  293.  d  lu  Haye,  1682. 

*  Not  the  Moor  as  it  is  commonly  written.  Paulus  Jovius  (Vitos 
illust.  virorum,  iv.)  states  that  Lodovico  Sforza  adopted  as  his  bearing 
a  white  mulberry-tree  {moro),  the  wisest  of  all  plants,  which  buds  late, 
and  does  not  flower  till  all  hazard  Jrnm  winter  is  past.  The  usurper, 
however  wily  in  maturing  his  plans,  was  mistaken  in  the  application 
of  the  latter  meaning  of  the  emblem  to  himself.  It  was  under  a  similar 
delusion  that  he  named  himself  iljigluolo  delta  Fortuna.  Guicciardini, 
who  records  this  folly,  speaks  however  of  his  title  il  Moro  as  denoting 
liis  complexion  as  well  as  his  political  wisdom.— Lib.  iii.  vpl.  j.  p.  239. 
Ed.  Frib.  1775. 


r 


CHARLES  VIII.  TO  ITALY. 


113 


was  now  in  his  twenty-second  year  ;  nature  had  been  but 
chary  in  her  endowments  at  his  birth,  and  he  was  little 
gifted  with  such  qualities  as  constitute  either  real  or  ideal 
heroism.  Rash,  light,  and  headstrong,  without  prudence, 
judgment,  dihgence,  or  constancy,  he  was  so  weak  in  dis- 
position as  to  be  the  easy  tool  of  every  fresh  intriguer  who 
beset  him ;  so  deficient  in  cultivation,  that  it  was  with  dif- 
ficulty he  could  write  his  own  signature.  He  is  represented 
to  have  been  equally  wanting  also  in  personal  graces.  We 
are  told  that  he  was  dwarfish  in  stature,  forbidding  in  aspect, 
disproportioned  in  limbs,  large-headed,  short-necked,  high- 
shouldered,  and  spindle-shanked,  altogether  more  like  a 
monster  than  a  man.*  Such  is  the  portrait  transmitted  to 
us  of  that  youthful  conqueror,  who  was  to  renew  the  march 
of  Hannibal  ;t  to  overthrow  a  powerful  kingdom,  and  to 
abandon  the  fruits  of  his  rapid  victories  only  that  he  might 
increase  the  glory  which  fortune  poured  blindly  into  his 
lap,  by  effecting  one  of  the  most  successful  retreats,  and 
winning  one  of  the  most  remarkable  victories,  recorded  in 
military  annals. 

In  the  invitation  conveyed  by  Lodovico  Sforza  to  the 
King  of  France,  Venice  was  not  a  party  ;  and  it  was  with 
astonishment  by  no  means  unmixed  with  alarmt  that  she 

*  Bruttissimo  is  the  epithet  employed  by  Guicciardini,  who  continups, 
pareva  quasi  piii  similfi  a  raostro  che  ad  huomn. — Lib.  i.  vol.  i.  p.  70. 
Brantome,  on  the  authority  of  his  grandmother,  strenuously  rejects  these 
pictures  of  Charles's  ill-favoured  person,  and  the  Italian  historians  may 
perhaps  have  overcharged  the  features ;  but  Philippe  de  Cominea,  who 
represents  him  but  a  few  degrees  better,  cannot  be  (loubted.  Moreover, 
a  corroborating  testimony  is  afforded  by  an  unprejudiced  witness. 
Bartholemaeua  Codes,  a  great  contemporary  physiognomist,  to  whose 
judgment  the  king's  portrait  was  submitted,  thus  describes  it  -.—Caput 
magnum  it  nasus  ultra  modum  aqwUnus  magmis,  labia  subtilia 
aliquantulum  et  mentum  ratundum  et  fovcatum,  oculi  viagni  et 
aliquant uhXin  emintntes,  colluni  curtiim,  non  satis  vividum,  pectus  et 
dorsum  aynplum,  hypochondria  sat'S  magna,  venter  cariiosus,  nates 
satis  ampl(B,  coxcb  suhtiles  et  crura  subtilia  et  satis  magna  in  longi- 
tudine. — Physiognom.  QucBSt.  lib.  ii.  15.  The  prognostics  which  the 
sage  delivered  were  that  the  prince  would  be  short-lived,  and  probably 
die  ex  materia  catarrhali :  he  was  right  in  one,  at  least,  of  these  con- 
jectures. 

t  Passando  in  Italia  per  la  mr>ntagna  di  Monghieura,  per  la  quale 
passd  anticamenfe  Annibale  Carfaginiense—ma  con  incredibile  diffi- 
colta. — Guicciardini.  lib.  i.  vol.  i.  p.  71. 

X  Guicciardini  has  enumerated  many  prodigies  which  foreran  the 
French  invasion  ;  they  are  much  of  the  same  cast  as  those  which  nine- 
teen centuries  before  warned  the  Romans  G  alios  advent  arc.    Seers  aiuJ 

K2 


^\ 


] 


114 


EMBASSY  OF  PHILIPPE  DE  COMINES. 


learned  the  determination  of  Charles  to  assert  by  arms  the 
long-suspended  claims  of  the  house  of  Anjou  upon  the 
Neapolitan  crown  ;  his  passage  of  the  Alps  ;  his  unchecked 

progress  to  the  south  of  Italy  ;  and  his  final  occu- 
^Aok     pation  of  Naples.    Alexander  VL,  indeed,  threatened 

the  penalties  of  ecclesiastical  censure  if  the  French 
army  should  violate  the  precincts  of  the  eternal  city ;  but 
he  was  silenced  by  the  reply  of  Charles,  that  he  had  vowed 
a  pilgrimage  to  the  tomb  of  St.  Peter,  and  that  even  at  the 
peril  of  his  Ufe  this  holy  engagement  must  be  fulfilled.* 
Before  he  arrived  at  Rome,  the  young  prince  of  Milan  had 
died  under  strong  suspicion  of  poison,  and  Lodovico  Sforza 
had  seized  upon  the  dukedom.  These  great  events  belong 
to  general  history,  and  we  confine  ourselves  to  the  feelings 
and  the  consequences  which  they  produced  in  Venice  ;  in- 
termixing only  some  pointed  notices  of  contemporary  habita 
and  manners,  traced  by  a  keen  observer  of  human  nature. 
Philippe  de  Comines,  a  gentleman  of  very  ancient  house  in 
Flanders,  passed  in  early  youth  from  the  service  of  Charles 
the  Bold  of  Burgundy  to  that  of  I.oui^  XI.  of  France  ; 
who  esteemed  him  greatly,  employed  him  in  some  of  his 
weightiest  and  most  secret  aflairs,  and  created  him  his 
chamberlain,  seneschal  of  Poictou  and  Lord  of  Argenton. 
For  a  time  he  enjoyed  similar  confidence  under  Charles 
VIII.,  and  at  the  commencement  of  this  Italian  expedition 
he  was  despatched  as  ambassador  to  conciliate  the  good- 
will of  Venice. 

Comines  informs  us,  that  on  his  entrance  to  the  Lafrnne, 
he  was  met  at  Fusina  by  five-and-twenty  gentlemen 
sumptuously  apparelled  in  silk  and  scarlet,  who  welcomed 
him  with  an  oration.  As  he  drew  nearer  the  city,  an  equal 
number  of  grave  personages  in  like  garb,  accompanied  by 
the  ambassadors  of  Milan  and  of  Ferrara,  awaited  him  at 

astrologers  prophesied  approaching  calamity ;  three  suns  appeared  in 
Apuglia;  in  Arezzo  an  infinite  nunober  of  armed  men  mounted  on  gi- 
gantic horses  galloped  through  the  sky  to  the  sound  of  drums  and 
trumpets ;  images  sweated ;  monstrous  animals  and  children  were 
plentifully  born  ;  and  great  astonishment  seems  to  have  existed  that  all 
these  marvels  passed  without  the  accompaniment  of  a  comet :  dava 
solamente  agli  uomuii  ammirazione,  che  in  tanti  prodigi  non  sidimns- 
trasse  la  siessa  cometa,  la  quale  gli  Jivtichi  reputayano  certissimo 
measaggiero  delta  rmdazione  de*  Regni  e  dcgli  Stati.  Lib.  i.  vol.  i.  p.  67. 
*  En,  quelle  gentille  invention  et  feintissei  de  voeu  I  is  Brantome'8 
rapturous  exclamation.— £Zo^e  de  Charles  VIII 


TO    VENICE. 


115 


St.  Andrea  with  a  similar  troublesome  ceremonial ;  con- 
ducted him  to  a  large  gondola,  covered  with  crimson  satin 
and  decked  within  with  arras  ;    and  placed  him  between 
the  two  ambassadors,  the  middle  being  the  Italian  post  of 
honour.     As  he  passed  along  the  grand  canal,  he  appears 
to  have  b^en  deeply  impressed  with  the  magnificence  of 
I        the  city.     «  Sure  in  mine  opinion  it  is  the  goodliest  streete 
n       in  the  world  and  the  best  built,  and  reacheth  in  length  from 
the  one  end  of  the  towne  to  the  other.     Their  buildings  are 
high  and  stately,  and  all  of  fine  stone.    The  ancient  houses 
be  all  painted  ;  but  the  rest  that  haue  been  built  within  these 
^V^"^red  yeeres  haue  their  front  all  of  white  marble  brought 
thither  out  of  Istria  an  hundred  miles  thence,  and  are 
beautified  with  many  great  peeces  of  Porphire  and  Sar- 
pentine.     In  the  most  part  of  them  are  at  the  least  two 
chambers,  the  seeling  whereof  is  gilded,  the  mantle-trees 
of  the  chimneies  verie  rich,  to  wit,  of  grauen  marble,*  the 
bedsteds  gilded,  the   presses  painted  and  vermeiled  with 
golde,  and  maruellous  well  furnished  with  stuflfe.     To  be 
short,  it  is  the  most  triumphant  citie  that  euer  I  sawe,  and 
where    ambassadors    and    strangers    are    most   honorably 
entertained,  the  commonwealth   best  gouerned,  and  God 
most  deuoutly  serued  ;  so  far  foorth  that  notwithstanding 
they  haue  diuers  imperfections,  yet  thinke  I  verily  that  God 
prospereth  them,  because  of  the  reuerence  they  beare  to 
the  seruicc  of  the  church."! 

During  eight  months'  residence  in  Venice,  the  Lord  of 
Argenton  received  strong  conviction  of  the  power  and  the 
policy  of  her  government ;  «  Sure  thus  much  I  dare  boldly 
say  of  them,  that  they  are  men  of  such  wisedome,  and  so  in- 
clined to  mlarge  their  dominions,  that  unlesse  they  be  looked 
to  m  time,  all  their  neighbours  shall  repent  it  too  late."  To 
his  first  diplomatic  overtures,  which  commenced  while 
Charles  had  ad\  (meed  no  further  than  Asti,the  signory,  at  that 

I  J.^^^«wI^"t^  Wotton,  a  century  later,  was  much  struck  by  the  excel- 
lence  of  the  Italians  m  this  species  of  decoration.  In  his  Elements  of 
Architecture,  when  treating  "  of  Chimneys,"  he  says,  "  In  the  urpsent 

besTc?.f;J'n''"'  ft''^  make  very  frugal  fires)  ar^  perJlance  nTthe 
best  counsellors  Therefore  from  them  we  may  better  learn  how  to 
raise  fair  mantels  within  the  roomsr—Reliq.  Wotton  p  37 

RnLki'nf^lh/i/*  ^"""'^  ^f""^":.^  ^^y-'^^^^  ^om  the  Vllth  andVnith 
Pa?roa%";j?h^^''iJ:?,^  '^^"""">^'«'  -e  have  used  a  tram. 


y 


|3 


\i 


1 


118         EMBASSY   OF    PHILIPPE   DE    C0M1NE3 

time  little  anticipating  the  promptness  of  the  king's  move- 
ments, returned  evasive  answers  ;  and  they  still  maintained 
appearances  of  friendship  even  when  his  unlooked-for 
successes  had  determined  them  upon  a  hostile  alliance ; 
and  when  the  ambassadors  of  the  emperor,  of  Milan,  and 
of  Spain,  already  assembled  in  the  capital,  were  holding 
nightly  conferences  among  themselves  and  with  the  Ten, 
preparatory  to  a  general  league  against  France.  To  ex- 
plain this  sudden  change  in  politics,  it  should  be  noticed 
that  Sforza,  by  whose  intrigues  the  invasion  had  been 
concerted,  was  both  disappointed  in  his  promised  reward, 
and  alarmed  for  his  usurped  dominion,  upon  which  the 
Duke  of  Orleans,  commanding  in  Lombardy,  asserted  a 
claim  ;  that  Maximilian  saw  in  the  conqueror  of  Naples  an 
aspirant  to  the  succession  of  the  empire  ;  and  that  the  King 
of  Spain  had  armed  to  revenge  the  overthrow  of  the 
Aragonese  dynasty,  and  to  guard  his  own  dominions  in 
Sicily.  Comines,  however,  had  not  spared  money,  and 
therefore  he  had  procured  good  intelligence  ;  he  knew  the 
articles  which  were  in  debate  before  they  were  signed,  and 
he  avowed  that  knowledge  to  the  signory.  The  doge, 
Auorustino  Barbarigo,  whom  he  describes  to  be  "  a  vertuous 
and  a  wise  man,  of  great  experience  in  the  affaires  of  Italic, 
and  a  curteous  and  gentle  person,"  notwithstanding  this 
declaration,  attempted  to  dissemble ;  he  assured  the  Lord 
of  Argenton  that  "  he  must  not  beleeve  all  that  he  heard  in 
the  towne ;  for  all  men  live  there  at  libertie,  and  might 
speake  what  they  Hsted  !"  and  he  loudly  professed  a  con- 
tinuance of  neutrality.  Being  urged  further,  he  ultimately 
admitted  that  the  occupation  of  many  places  in  the  terri- 
tories of  Florence  and  of  the  Church  had  cKcited  suspicion  ; 
but  that  nothing  should  be  definitively  concluded  by  the 
allies  till  they  had  received  from  the  king  an  answer  to 
their  remonstrances. 

When  the  reduction  of  Naples  was  certified,  "  they  sent 
for  me  againe  in  a  morning,"  says  Comines,  "and  I  founde 
fiftie  or  sixtie  of  them  assembled  together  in  the  duke's 
chamber,  who  lay  sicke  of  the  collicke.  He  told  me  these 
newes  with  a  cheerfull  countenance,  but  none  of  the  rest 
could  dissemble  so  cunningly  as  himselfe :  for  some  of  them 
sate  upon  a  lowe  bench  leaning  upon  their  elbowes,  other 
some  after  one  sort,  and  others  after  another ;  their  outwarcl 


I 


}t 


TO    VENICE. 


117 


countenances  bewraying  their  inward  griefe.  And  I  thinke 
verily  when  word  came  to  Rome  of  the  battell  lost  at 
Cannas  against  Hannibal,  that  the  Senators  which  re- 
mained in  the  Citie  were  not  more  astonished  nor  troubled 
than  these :  for  none  of  them  once  looked  upon  me,  none 
of  them  gaue  me  one  word  but  the  Duke  alone ;  so  that  I 
woondered  to  beholde  them." 

On  the  final  arrangement  of  the  league,  they  summoned 
him  one  morning  earlier  than  usual  in  order  to  declare  its 
outline.  "  They  were  assembled  to  the  number  of  a  hundred 
or  more,  and  looked  up  with  cheerefull  countenances,  and 
sate  not  as  they  did  the  day  they  aduertised  me  of  the 
taking  of  the  Castle  of  Naples.  I  was  maruellously 
troubled  with  this  newes,  for  I  stood  in  doubt  both  of  the 
King's  person,  and  of  all  his  companie,  supposing  their 
armie  to  haue  becne  readier  than  indeed  it  was,  as  did 
themsclues  also.  I  feared  further  least  the  Almaines  had 
bcone  at  hand  ;  and  not  without  cause  ;  for  if  they  had, 
vndoubtedly  the  King  had  ncuer  departed  out  of  ItaUe.  I 
was  resolued  not  to  speake  much  in  this  heate  :  but  they 
so  prouoked  me  that  I  was  forced  to  change  my  minde  ; 
and  then  I  said  unto  them,  that  both  the  night  before  and 
diuers  other  times,  I  had  aduertised  the  King  of  their 
League,  and  that  he  also  had  sent  me  word  that  he  had 
intelligence  thereof  from  both  Rome  and  from  Milan. 
They  all  looked  maruellous  strange  upon  me,  when  I  said 
that  I  had  aduertised  the  King  before,  for  there  is  no  nation 
under  the  sunne  so  suspicious  as  they,  nor  so  secret  in 
their  affaires,  so  that  oftentimes  they  banish  men  upon 
suspicion  onely,  for  the  which  cause  I  said  thus  much 
unto  them." 

It  must  not  be  dissembled,  however,  that  the  Venetian 
historians,  no  less  anxious  to  maintain  the  well  established 
celebrity  of  their  government  for  inviolable  secrecy  than  is 
Philippe  de  Comines  to  blazon  his  own  penetration,  deny 
altogether  that  the  French  ambassador  was  acquainted 
with  the  league  against  his  master,  till  it  was  communicated 
to  him  by  the  signory.  Bembo  speaks  pointedly  to  this 
fact ;  and  the  anecdote  which  he  has  preserved  bears  strong 
internal  evidence  of  truth.  So  effective,  he  says,  were  the 
precautions  adopted  by  the  Ten  for  the  preservation  of  their 
secret,  that  although  the  ambassador  of    France  daily 


■■) 


yi 


118 


IMPRUDENCE    OF    CHARLES   VIH. 


If 


\' 


III, 


frequented  the  council,  and  was  visited  by  his  brother 
envoys,  no  suspicion  ever  crossed  his  mind  of  what  was 
passing.  When,  on  the  morning  after  the  signature  of  the 
league,  he  was  invited  to  the  hall  of  the  senate,  and  heard 
from  the  doge  the  terms  of  the  treaty,  and  the  uiunes  of 
those  who  were  parties  to  it,  he  was  almost  demented  for 
the  moment;  till,  recovering  a  little,  he  nskcd  abruptly, 
"What!  will  my  king  be  restrained  from  roturnmg  to 
France  1"  The  doge  assured  bun,  on  the  contmry,  thnt, 
if  Charles  appeared  in  peaceful  guise,  every  facility  would 
be  afforded  him.  Philippe  de  Comines,  when  he  quitted 
the  senate  and  descended  the  steps  into  the  palace-court 
turned  to  the  secretary  of  the  council  who  accompanied 
him,  and  begged  him  to  repeat  the  doge's  words,  since  he 
found  himself  wholly  unable  to  call  them  up  to  his  le- 

membrance.*  ,     ^  ,  .  ^    i 

No  sooner  was  Charles  apprized  of  his  great  clanger 
than  he  broke  up  from  Naples,  towards  the  close  of  May. 
Hitherto  his  triumph  had  been  almost  bloodless  :  one  King 
of  Naples  abdicated  and  died  of  terror,  as  was  said,  at  his 
approach  ;t  a  second  and  a  third,  his  successors,  abandoned 
their  dominions  ;  and  the  conqueror  w\^s  celebrating  his 
past  successes  by  inconsiderate  festivity,  and  anticipating 
yet  bri<Thter  renown  at  Constantinople,  to  which  his  future 
hopes  were  directed,  when  he  was  informed  of  the  powerful 
confederacy  which  was  assembling  nearly  40,000  men  on 
the  Lombard  borders  of  Tuscany,  to  intercept  all  communi- 
cation with  his  native  dominions.  Yet,  notwithstandmg 
the  peril  which  environed  him,  he  had  the  imprudence  to 
weaken  his  army,  already  inadequate  to  meet  the  force 
which  it  was  likely  to  encounter,  by  leaving  useless 
garrisons  behind  him.  Then,  lingering  unnecessarily  for 
many  days  at  Sienna  and  at  Pisa,  and  detaching  another 

*  Lib.'ii.  p.  M,  aimd  1st.  Venez.  .        ,.  j  , 

t  Ferdinand  not  only  died,  but  also^se  perd  e  lec.to  tali  cose  non  del 
tutto  disprezzare,  as  Guicciardini  with  wisdom  beyond  his  times 
introduces  the  tal^absolutely  returned  from  the  other  w^'-ld,  ^yrder 
to  express  his  fears.  The  king's  ghost  appeared  ^^^^'ce  on  different 
nights,  to  Giacopo,  chief  phvsiciau  of  the  court ;  and  first  in  gentle 
terms,  afterward  with  fierce  menaces,  urpe<l  him  to  inform  the  new 
monarch  Alfonso,  in  the  ahosfs  own  name,  that  all  resistance  to  France 
would  be  vain,  and  that  his  posterity,  after  long  troubles  and  fina*  u«, 
tiironement,  was  destined  to  extinction.— Lib.  i.  vol.  i.  p.  1U< 


HIS    RETREAT. 


119 


1 


portion  of  his  scanty  force  to  attempt  an   impracticable 
enterprise  upon  Genoa,  he  approached  the  ApeSnes  by  a 
tardy  and  incautious  march.    The  aUies  vvere'^sror^tLr 
gathering,  or    hey  might  easily  have  cut  him  off  "mon^ 
those   mountains :    for  Philippe    de   Comines    sne-Tkrof 
several  defiles  v.hich  a  handful  of  men  could  have  success 
fully  defended  against  a  host ;  a^d  of  one  narrmv  causeway 
m  particular,  between  two  deep  salt  marshes,  in  wWcl  ™?I 
T''?-.f"'.r'  "T^'hwart  the  way  with  two  goL  Ices 
of  artillery"  would  have  checked  the  largest  fri^  wWch 
ever  mustered  m  the  field;  but  it  seemed%hat  thc^"emy 

of  heFrel'b  f""*  ''"'"''  °/  "'"i'^i'^-"  The  si^S 
01  the  French  troops  were  increased  by  want  of  supplies  • 

and  even  when  they  arrived  in  a  comparatively  abSnS 
district,  affording  "  bread  which  was  little,  blaik  and  of 
great  price,  and  wine  which  was  three  parts  water  "the 

Scts-vil^^d^  '""^ ""'' '-''"'-'  '■'-  ^"--4 

some  bloody  and  unauthorized  outrages  which  they  h^ 
committed  at  Pontremoli,  the  barrier 'town  of  the  Duke 
of    Milan  at   the   southern   foot  of  the  Apennines,  "he 
artillery  must  have  been  abandoned  among  the  mounteu« 
T  he  field-pieces  of  those    days  exceeded  in   caliber   the 
heaviest  battering  train   of    modern   sieges ;   for  plu^us 
Jov.us  speaks  of  each  horseman  carrying  on  the  puS 
of  his  saddle  a  cannon-ball  of  filly  pounds'  weight  "T,!} 
he  Comte  de  la  Tremouille.  who  sV^ri„tend"S  X'ope^- 
I  ons,  set  an  example  in  his  own  person,  by  bearingTo 
o    those  immense  masses.     Drums%ind  trumpets  sodded 
at  intervals  to  animate  the  toil-worn  soldiers;   fiveXs 
were  consiimed  m  their  wearisome  labours ;   ;„d  ^n  the 
sixth  Charles,  who  had  imprudently  despatched  his  van! 
J^uardhirty  miles  in  advance,  so  that  all  power  of  sustainW 
It  li  attacked  would  have  been  denied  him,  concentered  hii 


V 


w 


120        POSITIONS    OF   THE   HOSTILE   ARMIES. 

whole  array  at  Fornovo,  a  town  on  the  right  bank  of  the 
Taro,  a  mountain-torrent  which  runs  from  the  Apennines 
to  the  Po.  The  French  did  not  amount  at  the  utmost  to 
more  than  9,000  fighting  men,  harassed  by  fatigue,  ex- 
hausted by  want  of  food,  and  in  the  presence  of  an  enemy 
more  than  fourfold  their  number. 

The  confederates  were  encamped  a  little  lower  down  on 
the  same  bank  of  the  Taro,  near  the  Abbey  Ghiaruola, 
about  two  miles  in  the  rear  of  Fornovo ;  a  position  which 
they  chose  both  to  mask  the  city  of  Parma,  of  the  fidelity 
of  which  doubts  were  entertained,  and  also  to  afford  more 
open  space  for  the  manceiivres  of  their  numerous  cavalry 
on  the  adjoining  plain.  Four-fifths  of  their  force  were 
composed  of  troops  in  the  pay  of  Venice,  commanded  by 
Francesco  di  Gonzaga,  Marquis  of  Mantua,  a  youthful 
captain  of  distinguished  skill  and  bravery ;  who,  exclusive 
of  infantry,  marshalled  under  his  banner  nearly  20,000 
horse.  Of  these  5000  were  Stradiots,  a  light-armed 
cavalry  of  Albania  and  the  Morea,  much  employed  by  Venice 
during  the  late  Turkish  war  ;  and  who  by  their  hardihood 
and  ferocity,  as  Philippe  de  Comines  assures  us,  "  trouble 
an  army  exceedingly  when  they  are  inclined  to  do  so." 
They  were  rough  soldiers,  couching  in  the  open  air, 
keeping  the  field  both  winter  and  summer,  charging  on 
fleet  Turkish  horses  with  irresistible  fury,  and  dispersing 
again  so  rapidly  as  to  evade  all  pursuit.  They  neither 
gave  nor  received  quarter ;  and,  retaining  the  barbarous 
habit  of  their  country,  they  bore  off  at  their  saddle-bows, 
or  on  the  points  of  their  lances,  the  heads  of  their  slaugh- 
tered enemies ;  for  each  of  which  they  received  a  ducat 
from  the  provveditori.  The  remainder  of  the  allied  force 
consisted  of  Milanese  under  the  Count  di  Caiazzo. 

Scarcely  had  Charles  dismounted  at  Fornovo  when  his 
quarters  were  beaten  up  by  the  Stradiots ;  whose  unobserved 
advance  was  facilitated  by  a  wood  which  ran  between  the 
two  camps,  but  who  retired  as  soon  as  the  French  took  to 
arms.  During  the  night,  like  alarms  were  renewed  from 
want  of  due  precaution  in  posting  sentinels ;  and  the 
French,  ill-provided  with  tents,  were  exposed  to  a  deluge 
of  rain,  accompanying  a  thunderstorm,  the  terrors  of  which 
were  greatly  heightened  by  the  deep  reverberations  from 
the  Apennines,  at  the  foot  of  which  they  were  encamped. 


CHARLES   CONTINUES    HIS   RETREAT.         1 21 

Tliere  were  few  hearts  which  did  not  quail  with  apprehen- 
sion  for  the  morrow,  ushered  in  as  it  was  by  these  supposed 
demonstrations  of  the  wrath  of  Heaven. 

In-order  to  continue  their  retreat,  it  was  necessary  that 
the  I-rench  should  cross  the  Taro  at  Fornovo,  and  defile 
along  Its  left  bank  m  the  very  front  of  the  enemy's  camp, 
which  would  then  be  separated  from  them  by  the  river ;  and 
the  king,  undismayed  by  his  inferiority  of  numbers,  an- 
nounced his  intention  of  firing  a  shot  into  the  camp  as  he 
passed,  m  order  to  signify  his  presence  and  his  willingness 
to  jom  battle  if  it  were  offered.     At  an  early  hour  on  the 
morning  of  the  6th  of  July,  Charles  heard  mass  ;  by  seven 
o  clock  he  was  on  horseback,  and  impatiently  called' for  his 
chamberlain.     When  Philippe  de  Comines    attended    the 
summons,  he  found  the  young  prince  armed  at  all  points, 
and  niounted  upon  a  favourite  black  horse  called  Savoy, 
trom  the  duke  its  donor ;  the  bravest  steed  which  man  ever 
saw,  and  though  having  «  but  one  eie,  and  being  meane 
ot  stature,  yet  tall  ynough  for  him  he  carried."     The  ap- 
proaching combat  had  given  unusual  animation  to  the  young 
king,  who  on  all  occasions,  indeed,  appears  to  have  exhibited 
distinguished  personal   courage.     "He   seemed  that  day 
altogether  another  man  than  cither  his  nature,  person,  or 
complexion  would  beare  ;  for  naturally  he  was,  and  yet  is, 
very  fearfull  in  speech ;  bicause  he  had  ever  been  brought 
up  m  great  awe  and  with  men  of  meane  estate ;  but  his 
horse  made  him  seeme  great,  and  he  had  a  good  counte- 
nance^ and  a  good  colour,  and  his  talke  was  strong  and 
wise.  *     Philippe  de  Comines,  from  his  long  residence  at 
Venice,  being  well-known  to  the  provveditori,  had  proposed 

*  Brantome  has  extracted  from  the  Supplementum  Chrnnirnnim  of 
iTiacopo  di  Bergamo  a  speech  attributed  to  Charles  on  the  occasion— 
eUe  me  semblr,  says  the  panegyrist,  tres  belle  et  gentille—Voilu  certes 
oeues  paroles  et  mi  brave  ct  gent  il  my  pour  rV avoir  jamais  estudir.  The 
Dlame  of  Charles's  lack  of  learning  must  be  entirely  attributed  to  his 
detestable  father,  who  permitted  him  to  be  taught  but  one  sentence  in 
Latm,  his  own  favourite  axiom  of  king  craft  :  Qui  nescit  dissimvlare, 
nescit  regnare.  Benedetii,  however,  does  not  admit  that  want  of  let- 
ters was  peculiar  to  Charles,  but  extends  it  to  the  whole  race  of  French 
pnnces.  R  Re  m  mezzo  di  due  Cardinali  cavalcava  intorno  le  squadre, 
etcon  quanta  eloquentia  pud  essere  tra  rli  humnini  idiotti  {perciochi  i 
trcTicipi  Frances  I,  nnnfanno  stima  di  lettere)  conf'ortava  tutti  i  Capi- 
ram.  Il  Fatto  d'arme  del  Tarro,  lib.  i.  p.  24.  The  speech,  which  is  too 
long  for  extraction  in  our  pages,  and  is  probably  the  composition  of  the 
Chronicler  IS  printed  by  Daru.    Paulus  Jovius  gives  an  account  of  the 

Vol,  II. — L 


r 


V 


Outuiaiivb 


122 


THE    MARCH. 


to  them,  some  days  before,  an  amicable  parley,  and  bf« 
offer  was  not  wholly  declined.     The  king,  therefore,  not- 
withstanding the  boldness  of  his  demonstrations,  expressed 
a  wish  to  have  that  overture  now  renewed ;  and  the  Lord 
of  Argenton  testified  his  readiness  to  obey.     But,  more  ex- 
perienced in  the  field  than  his  master,  he  at  the  same  time 
remarked  that  he  had  never  yet  seen  two  so  great  armies  in 
so  immediate  contact  which  parted  without  a  battle.     While 
he  drew  aside  to  frame  his  despatch  to  the  provveditorij  the 
march  began  from  Fornovo  ;  and  the  Taro,  although  swol- 
len by  the  rain  of  the  past  night,  having  been  forded,  the 
army  defiled  slowly  along  the  opposite  bank  till  it  reached 
the  face  of  the  Venetian  camp.     The  French  were  mar- 
shalled in  three  divisions ;  the  van,  by  far  the  strongest 
body,  because  upon  it  the  brunt  of  attack  was  expected  to 
fall,  was  led  by  the  Marshal  de  Gie  and  by  Trivulzio,  two 
of  the  bravest  and  most  tried  captains  of  their  time  ;  and 
it  included  3000  Swiss,  300  dismounted  Scottish  archers, 
and  the  entire  infantry  and  artillery.     The  king  himself 
followed  with  the  main  battle,  supported  by  his  nine  Preux, 
favourites  especially  selected  as  comrades  of  the  monarch 
in  the  field.     Round  him  were  displayed  countless  standards, 
banners,  and  guidons,  and  the  glittering  troop  advanced  to 
the  symphony  of  trumpets  and  clarions.     His  harness  was 
of  the  richest  fabric,  he  wore  a  gorgeous  surcoat  with  short 
sleeves,  in  colour  white  and  violet,  embroidered  with  Jeru- 
salem crosses,  and   blazing  with  jewelryj;  his  horse  was 
barded  after  the  same  fashion,  and  both  his  chanfrons  and 
testiere*  especially  were  of  most  choice  and  curious  work- 
manship.    The  rear  was  brought  up  by  the  Comte  de  Nar- 

king'8  bearing  very  similar  to  that  of  Philippe  de  Comines.  adding,  sed 
tumfrnnte  atque  oculis,  aduncoque  prcBsertim  et  prominent e  naso ptcg- 
nacis  ac  intrepidi  militis  speciem  prasbebcU.  Black  Savoy,  according  to 
the  same  writer's  description,  was,  it  is  to  be  feared,  little  better  than  a 
dray-horse.  Equum  conscendit  neque  nobili  colore  vel  celsd  staturd 
conspicuum,  quum  esset  absolutce  ob  idqut  dmnnntas  nigrcdinis  tini- 
color,  dcxtroque  oculo  caytus,  sed  qui  quadrato  habitu  indt/tnitum  prcB- 
fcrrct  robur.—Hist.  lib.  ii.  fol.  69.     Ed.  Vtn.  155.?. 

*  Chanfrons,  armour  for  the  horse's  face,  to  which  was  afllxed  the 
testiere  between  the  ears,  and  hearing  a  crest.  Our  account  above  is 
taken  from  Brantome,  who  writes  in  the  true  sj»irit  of  chivalry  ;  and  it 
accords  belter  with  the  character  of  the  vain  and  thoughtless  prince  than 
that  given  by  Paulus  Jovius.  "  Validis  potius  quam  decoris  armis  pro- 
tectus— ne(iue,  vel  a  cono  capitis  vel  a  regali  cultu  nosci  volebat."— tt« 
supra. 


A    PARLEY. 


123 


bonne.  Both  these  latter  divisions  were  small  in  numbers  ; 
and  they  were  succeeded  by  a  long,  straggling  train  of  6000 
beasts  of  burden,  which  conveyed  the  baggage,  and  were 
without  any  further  escort  than  such  as  could  be  afforded 
by  the  horseboys  and  camp-followers.  This  cavalcade  was 
ordered  to  incline  to  some  hills  on  the  left  of  the  march  of 
the  army. 

While  the  prorveditori  were  deliberating  upon  their  reply 
to  the  Lord  of  Argcnton's  proposition,  a  distant  cannonade 
had  begun  between  the  camp  and  the  French  vanguard. 
A  trumpet  was  despatched  by  the  Venetians  to  demand  a 
cessation  of  this  firing  till  the  parley  should  be  concluded, 
and  to  make  inquiry  concerning  a  prisoner  of  rank  who  had 
been  taken  the  day  before.  This  messenger  received  in- 
structions  to  mark  with  particular  accuracy  the  disposition 
of  the  march,  and  especially  the  post  and  armour  of  the 
king  himself;  in  order  that  his  person  might  be  recog- 
nised in  the  mclec.  It  is  said  that  the  over-anxiety  of  the 
spy  betrayed  his  commission,  and  that  the  French,  becoming 
aware  of  their  inadvertency  in  admitting  him  too  freely  to 
the  royal  presence,  endeavoured  to  atone  for  it  by  making 
the  Prciix  adopt  arms  and  colours  as  similar  as  circum- 
stances would  permit  to  those  borne  by  the  king.*  Not- 
withstanding these  pacific  appearances,  the  cannonade  was 
speedily  renewed,  and  Philippe  de  Comines,  perceiving  the 
great  danger  to  which  he  would  be  exposed  by  longer  sepa- 
ration from  his  comrades,  clapped  spurs  to  his  horse  and 
overtook  the  main  body ;  this  movement  was  seasonable, 
for  before  he  reached  his  position  three  of  his  attendants 
were  cut  down  by  the  enemy. 

The  king,  with  his  sword  drawn,  was  giving  the  accolade 
to  such  as  claimed  knighthood,  according  to  the  usual  cus- 
tom before  an  engagement,t  when  Philippe  de  Comines 

*  De  la  Vigne,  in  his  Jo7imaI,  who  is  followed  by  Gamier,  Hist,  de 
France,  x.  484.  It  is  little  likely,  however,  that  the  hurry  of  the  impend- 
ing battle  would  permit  these  changes  at  the  moment ;  and  Paulus  Jovius 
and  Brantome  assure  us  that  the  Praix  were  so  armed  from  the  begin- 
ning ;  a  custom  sufficiently  familiar  to  the  English  reader,  who  will  re- 
member the  Lord  of  Stafford,  Sir  Walter  Blunt,  and  the  many  others 
"  marching  in  the  coats"  of  Henry  IV.  at  Shrewsbury,  and  the  "  six 
Richmonds  in  the  field"  at  Bosworth. 

t  M.  de  Sansac,  a  gentleman  well  skilled  in  the  usages  of  chivalry, 
gave  Brantome  a  sound  reason  for  dubbing  knights  be/ore,  rather  than 
after,  battle ;  both  the  distinguished  personage  who  bestowed  and  the 
aspirant  who  received  the_honour  might  chance  to  be  killed  in  the  battle. 


t< 


I 


124 


COMMENCEMENT   OF   THE    BATTLE. 


rejoined  him.  At  the  same  moment  a  loud  cry  was  heard 
from  the  spot  which  the  Lord  of  Argenton  had  just  quitted ; 
and  the  bastard  of  Bourbon  rode  up  to  Charles,  calling  out, 
"  Forward,  sire,  forward  ;  this  is  no  time  to  amuse  your- 
self by  dubbing  knights ;  the  enemy  is  at  hand  ;  let  us 
charge  them !"  Contrary  to  expectation,  the  Marquis  of 
Mantua  had  crossed  the  Taro  behind  the  French,  in  order 
to  attack  their  rear  with  the  flower  of  his  army,  the  men-at- 
arms  being  intermixed  with  Stradiots.  He  marched  with 
his  force  softly  and  well  together,  which,  as  Philippe  de 
Comines  remarks,  with  a  true  soldier's  spirit  when  re- 
cording a  brilliant  manoeuvre  even  in  an  enemy,  "  was  a 
marvellous  pleasant  sight  to  behold."  A  large  body  of 
Stradiots  was  directed  at  the  same  time  to  fall  upon  the 
baggage,  and  yet  another  division  to  charge  in  flank  as  soon 
as  they  should  perceive  Gonzaga  himself  engaged,  and 
besides  these  the  Count  de  Caiazzo  passed  the  river  in  front 
and  attacked  the  van.  It  seemed,  therefore,  as  if  the  French, 
pressed  at  the  same  moment  from  three  quarters,  and  in 
each  by  superior  numbers,  must  inevitably  be  destroyed ;  and 
if  the  confederates  had  brought  all  their  force  into  action 
instead  of  weakening  it  by  unnecessary  reserves,  which  the 
timid  cautiousness  of  the  provveditori  retained  in  the  camp, 
such  probably  would  have  been  the  issue  of  the  day. 

The  rear  was  already  briskly  engaged  when  Charles  has- 
tened to  its  relief:  "  The  King,"  says  Philippe  de  Comines, 
"  went  into  the  front  of  his  battell,  and  placed  himself  before 
his  standard,  so  that,  the  Bastard  of  Bourbon  excepted,  I 
sawe  none  neerer  the  enimies  then  himselfe.  Our  enimies 
marched  lustely  forward,  in  such  sort,  that  within  lesse 
then  a  quarter  of  an  hower  after  my  arrivall,  they  were 
come  within  a  hundred  paces  of  the  King,  who  was  evill 
garded  and  as  evil  waited  on  as  ever  was  Prince  or  Noble- 
man ;  but  mauger  the  Divil,  he  is  well  defended  whom  God 
defends."  The  shock  of  the  men-at-arms  was  most  for- 
midable ;  "  undoubtedly  it  is  impossible  for  men  to  meete 
roughlier  than  we  met ;"  the  lances  of  both  parties  shivered 
at  the  first  encounter,  and  they  fought  bravely  with  their 
broken  staves  and  battle-axes,  while  their  horses,  trained  to 
such  warfare,  plied  their  teeth  and  hoofs  against  each  other 
almost  as  if  animated  by  national  hatred.*     The  king  was 

*  Guicciardinl,  lib.  il.  vol.  li.  p.  170. 


i 

I 


SUCCESS  OF  THE  FRENCH  REAR. 


125 


among  the  foremost,  and  the  bastard  of  Bourbon  was  taken 
prisoner  within  twenty  paces  from  his  side.  In  the  mean 
time,  the  Stradiots  who  accompanied  this  charge,  and  upon 
whose  terrific  scimitars  great  reliance  was  placed  after  the 
lances  of  the  knights  were  broken,  observing  the  baggage 
in  confusion,  and  their  comrades  who  had  been  directed  to 
attack  it  enriching  themselves  by  its  plunder,  broke  from 
their  ranks  in  hope  of  sharing  the  spoil.  The  consequence 
of  this  disobedience  was  fatal :  the  men-at-arms,  suddenly 
deprived  of  their  expected  support,  were  panic-stricken  and 
fled  ;  many  of  the  bravest  were  slain  on  the  spot,  and  the 
remainder  were  pursued  at  full  speed  to  the  banks  of  the 
Taro,  now  difficult  of  passage  owing  to  the  still  increasing 
flood  ;  for  the  storm  which  commenced  on  the  preceding 
night  continued  to  rage  during  the  battle,  and  the  river, 
swollen  by  the  rains,  assumed  its  torrent  form  and  inundated 
the  valley.  Such  men-at-arms  as  had  fallen  wounded,  or 
whose  horses  failed  them,  were  quickly  despatched  by  the 
camp-followers,  who  thronged  round  with  hatchets  usually 
employed  in  wood-cutting ;  but  now  with  these  rude  weapons 
*'  they  brake  the  visards  of  the  knights'  head-pieces,  and  then 
clave  their  heads,  for  otherwise  they  could  hardly  have  been 
slaine,  they  were  so  surely  armed ;  so  that  there  were  ever 
three  or  fower  about  one  of  them.  Moreover,  the  long 
swords  that  our  archers  and  servants  had  did  that  day  great 
execution."  The  cry  in  the  pursuit  was  "  Remember  Guy- 
negate  !''  a  warning  against  the  allurement  either  of  plunder 
or  of  prisoners ;  for  Guynegate  was  a  battle  fought  in 
Picardy,  under  Louis  XL,  and  lost  in  the  very  moment 
of  victory  by  too  great  eagerness  for  pillage.*  So  well  did 
the  admonition  operate  upon  those  to  whom  it  was  addressed, 
that  not  a  single  prisoner  was  taken  ;  and  so  totally  had 
their  panic  deprived  the  fugitives  of  any  power  of  resistance, 
that  but  one  Frenchman  was  slain  in  the  pursuit. 

The  attack  in  front,  meanwhile,  was  weakly  conducted, 
and  almost  mimediately  repulsed  ;  but  the  Marshal  de  Gie, 

*  Guynegate  is  well  known  to  an  English  reader  as  the  spot  at  which 
the  flower  of  the  French  cavalry  were  routed  by  Henry  VITI.  in  1510. 
On  this  Joumie  des  Esperovs,  the  Battle  of  the  Spurs,  the  Chevalier 
Bayard  surrrendered  himself  to  a  gentleman  whom  he  had  already  made 
prisoner,  and  the  question  of  ransom  arising  between  them  was  dis- 
cussed by  the  emperor  and  the  Kini;  of  Kngland.  The  adventure  is  told 
in  a  very  lively  manner  in  the  Hist,  du  Chev.  Bayard,  57. 

L2 


126 


VICTORY   OF    THE    FRENCH. 


pnr.mnTTOVs  \kv  savokahot.a. 


127 


126 


VICTORY   OF    THE    FRENCH. 


PREDICTIONS   BY  SAVONAROLA. 


127 


aware  of  the  great  numerical  superiority  of  the  enemy,  per* 
ceiving  their  reserve  strongly  posted  in  their  camp,  and  not 
knowing  the  brilliant  success  of  his  c(Hnrades,  wisely  fore- 
bore  from  an  advance  which  might  have  proved  hazardous. 
Still,  although  the  day  was  won,  the  king,  who  remained 
on  the  spot. at  which  his  successful  charge  had  overthrown 
the  Marquis  of  Mantua,  was  exposed  to  great  personal 
danger.  At  one  time  he  was  "  marvellous  weakely  accom- 
panied," says  Philippe  de  Comines,  for  his  sole  attendant 
was  a  groom  of  his  chamber,  "  a  little  fellow  and  evilly 
armed."  While  thus  deserted  by  his  preux  in  the  ardour  of 
pursuit,  a  broken  troop  of  Italian  men-at-arms,  in  their  flight 
across  the  plain,  perceived  his  destitution,  and  rode  up  to 
attackhim.  By  his  practised  skill  in  horsemanship  and  the 
strength  and  docility  of  black  Savoy,  who  "  continued  re- 
moving to  and  fro,"  he  defended  himself  valiantly  till  the 
return  of  some  of  his  attendants  rescued  him  from  this  great 
peril,  and  placed  him  in  security  with  his  vanguard.* 

The  fight 'itself  occupied  not  more  than  a  quarter  of  an 
hour,  the  pursuit  about  thrice  as  long,  yet  so  bloody  had 
been  the  defeat,  that  of  the  allies  there  fell  3500  men,  seve- 
ral of  the  first  quality;  and  among  them  Rodolfo,  an  uncle 
of  the  Marquis  of  Mantua.  The  French  loss  did  not  amount 
to  200,  nor  did  it  include  any  personage  of  distinction  ;  and 
not  above  ten  of  the  slain  on  both  sides  were  struck  by 
artillery,  the  remainder  being  killed  hand  to  hand  in  close 
combat.  A  council  of  war  was  held  on  the  field  of  battle, 
in  which  Trivulzio  and  other  Italian  captains  boldly  urged 
the  king  to  follow  up  his  success  by  an  attack  upon  the 
camp.  But  Charles  was  more  calculated  to  win  than  to 
improve  a  victory  ;  the  proposal  was  considered  too  darino-, 
and  the  conquerors  repaired  to  such  quarters  as  they  could 
find  within  a  mile  from  the  scene  of  action.  "  The  kino-  him- 
selfe,"  writes  Philippe  de  Comines,  "  lay  in  a  farme-house 
being  an  old  beggerly  thing  :  notwithstanding  the  barnes 

*  Andre  de  la  Vigne,  who  was  secretary  to  Anne  of  Bretapne,  and  who 
wrote  his  Journal  at  the  express  command  of  Charles  VIII.,  has  ran- 
sacked all  history  and  romance  for  parallels  to  the  king's  heroism. — 
*'  A  proprement  parler  il  merita  cedit  jour  d'estre  apell6  vray  fils  de  Mars, 
euccesseur  de  Cesar,  compagnon  de  Poinpee,  hardy  comme  Hector, 
preux  comme  Alexandre,  semblable  a  Charlemagne,  courageux  comme 
Hannibal,  verteux' comme  Auguste,  hcureux  comme  Octavian,  chevale- 
jreiu  comme  Olivier,  et  deliber^  comme  Roland. 


about  it  were  full  of  corne  unthressed,  which  I  warrant  you 
our  army  quickly  found.  Certaine  other  old  houses  were 
there  also,  which  stood  us  but  in  small  stead  :  euerie  man 
lodged  himselfe  as  commodiously  as  he  could  ;  for  we  had 
no  lodgings  made.  As  touching  myselfe  I  lay  vpon  the  bare 
ground  under  a  vine,  in  a  verie  straight  roome,  having 
nothing  under  me,  no,  not  my  cloke  :  for  the  king  had  bor- 
rowed mine  in  the  morning,  and  my  carriage  was  far  off, 
and  it  was  too  late  to  seeke  it.  He  that  had  meat  ate  it, 
but  few  there  were  that  had  any,  unless  it  were  a  morsell 
of  bread,  snatched  out  of  some  of  their  seruants  bosoms : 
I  waited  upon  the  king  to  his  chamber,  where  he  found 
certaine  that  were  hurt,  namely  the  Seneschall  of  Lyons 
and  others,  whom  he  caused  to  be  dressed.  Himselfe  was 
merrie  and  made  good  cheere,  and  each  man  thought  him- 
selfe happie  that  hie  was  so  well  escaped  :  neither  were  we 
pufl'ed  up  with  pride  and  vainglorie,  as  before  the  battel), 
because  we  sawe  our  enemies  encamped  so  neere  us.  The 
same  night  all  the  Almaines  kept  the  watch,  and  the  King 
gaue  them  three  hundred  crownes  ;  whereupon  they  kept 
the  watch  verie  diligently  and  strake  up  their  drums 
brauely."  Charles,  indeed,  was  liberal  in  his  recompenses  ; 
the  Chevalier  Bayard,  who  was  making  his  first  campaign, 
had  two  horses  killed  under  him  on  this  day,  and  captured 
a  standard  in  the  pursuit ;  he  laid  this  trophy  at  the  feet 
of  the  king,  who  presented  him  with  600  crowns  in  return.* 
It  should  not  be  omitted,  that  during  the  whole  of  the 
above  trying  and  arduous  events,  Philippe  de  Comines  ap- 
pears to  have  been  animated  by  an  undoubted  assurance 
of  ultimate  success.  His  confidence  was  founded  on  a  pre- 
diction, to  which  he  frequently  alludes,  by  Savonarola ;  a 
bold,  factious,  and  enthusiastic  Dominican,  who  maintained 
the  paramount  influence  which  he  had  acquired  in  Florence, 
by  his  preaching,  his  prophecies,  and  his  austerities ;  till, 
about  three  years  after  the  battle  of  Fornovo,  he  was  ad- 
judged to  the  stake  by  the  vengeance  of  Alexander  VI., 
whose  crimes  he  had  too  fearlessly  denounced.  This 
**  Friar  Jacobin,  called  Friar  Hieronime,"  was  visited  by 
Philippe  de  Comines  because  he  had  preached  in  behalf  of 
Charles  VIII.,  and  had  affirmed  that  he  was  sent  by  God 

*  Hist,  du  Chev.  Bayard,  ch.  11. 


128 


REFLECTIONS   ON    THE    BATTLE. 


TENICE  CLAIMS  THE  VICTORY. 


129 


to  chastise  the  tyrants  of  Italy.  "  I  asked  him  whether  the 
King  should  passe  out  of  Italy  without  danger  of  his  per- 
son, seeing  the  great  preparation  the  Venetians  made  against 
him,  whereof  he  discoursed  perfcether  than  myselfe  that 
came  from  thence.  He  answered  me  that  the  King  should 
have  some  trouble  upon  the  way,  but  that  the  honour 
thereof  should  be  his,  though  he  were  accompanied  but  with 
a  hundred  men ;  and  that  God,  who  liad  guided  him  at  his 
comming,  would  also  protect  him  at  his  return. — Thus  much 
I  have  written,  to  the  end  it  may  yet  more  manifestly  ap- 
peere  that  this  voyage  was  indeed  a  meere  miracle  of  God." 
Seldom  has  the  intervention  of  a  miracle  and  a  special 
Providence  been  asserted  for  a  more  unworthy  purpose  !  and 
yet,  notwithstanding  the  convenient  vagueness  and  am- 
biguity of  language  which  Savonarola  employed  in  his  pre- 
dictions (and  these  were  many)  relative  to  Charles  VIII., 
there  remain  enough  contradictions  in  them  to  enable  us  to 
determine  that  it  was  but  a  lying  spirit  by  which  the 
prophet  was  inspired. 

The  shame  of  this  great  defeat  has  very  deeply  impressed 
many  of  the  Italian  historians.  Paulus  Jovius,  who  sums 
up  his  narrative  in  words  borrowed  from  those  of  liivy  when 
recounting  the  disaster  of  CanniE,  terms  it  the  extinction 
of  Cisalpine  military  glory,  an  ignominious  rout  which  made 
Italy  contemptible  to  foreigners,  and  was  the  beginning  of 
her  countless  future  miseries.  The  conduct  of  the  allies 
presents  indeed  a  singular  display  of  want  of  skill  and 
irresolution  ;  and  by  a  strange  fatality  they  neglected  each 
of  the  many  opportunities  of  success  which  the  rashness 
of  the  French  king  presented.  They  might  have  destroyed 
him  among  the  Apennines  ;  they  might  have  overpowered 
his  advanced  guard  during  its  long  detachment  from  the 
main  body  ;  they  might  have  attacked  him  with  advantage 
during  his  passage  of  the  Taro ;  or,  after  all  these  omis- 
sions, they  might  have  secured  victory  by  dint  of  numbers, 
if  they  had  at  once  brought  up  their  entire  force.  Yet  so 
deficient  were  they  in  unity  of  counsel,  or  of  design,  that 
they  appear  to  have  believed  at  first  that  the  mere  rumour 
of  their  preparations  would  be  sufficient  to  arrest  the  march 
of  their  enemy  ;  and  when  the  French  presented  them- 
selves upon  the  heights  above  Fornovo,  the  provvediforiy 
alarmed  at  this  most  unexpected  daring,  anxiously  urged 
their  allies  to  grant  an  undisputed  passage.     So  far  did 


. 


they  press  their  opposition  to  the  indignant  remonstrances 
of  the  Spanish  ambassador,  whose  master  ran  no  hazard 
from  defeat,  and  of  the  gallant  Mantuan  who  felt  assured 
of  victory  ;  so  unmoved  were  they  by  any  sense  of  the  dis- 
honour which  must  accrue  if  they  permitted  a  handful  of 
toil-worn  and  needy  adventurers  to  escape  after  braving 
their  fresh,  numerous,  and  well-appointed  host,  that  they 
despatched  messengers  to  ascertain  the  will  of  the  signory 
respecting  ulterior  i)roceedings  ;  and,  but  for  the  presump- 
tion of  Charles,  which  did  not  allow  time  for  reply,  it  may 
be  doubted  whether  the  battle  would  ever  have  been  fought. 
In  the  engagement  itself,  all  that  valour  could  effect  was 
assuredly  performed  by  Gonzaga ;  but  his  dispositions  do 
not  evince  much  acquaintance  with  tactics.  His  defeat  was 
in  great  measure  attributed  to  the  breach  of  discipline  by 
the  Stradiots,  to  the  sudden  rise  of  the  Taro,  which  occa- 
sioned disorder  in  his  ranks  as  he  crossed  it,  and  to  the  un- 
seasonable fall,  in  the  very  onset,  of  his  uncle  Rodolfo,  who 
was  to  have  given  a  signal  for  the  advance  of  a  powerful 
reserve.  That  reserve,  however,  so  soon  as  it  perceived  the 
first  check,  ought  to  have  pressed  forward  without  await- 
ing orders  ;  and  it  is  not  possible  to  deny  the  justice  of  the 
naive  comment  of  the  Lord  of  Argenton,  upon  "  Maister 
Anthonie,  of  Urbin,"  who  commanded  it,  that  the  death  of 
Rodolfo  "  served  him  for  a  good  excuse,  and  to  say  the  truth 
I  think  he  saw  ynough  to  stay  him  from  marching." 

We  shall  not  continue  to  follow  the  retreat  of  the  French, 
which,  although  effected  with  safety,  was  affirmed  by  the 
signory  to  be  no  other  than'a  disastrous  flight.  The  plunder 
obtained  by  the  Stradiots  was  purchased  and  transmitted  to 
Venice  ;  it  consisted  of  the  king's  horses,  tents,  plate,  and 
equipage,  many  costly  articles  removed  from  the  Neapolitan 
treasury,  and,  above  all,  the  ancient  crown  jewels  of  France, 
which  always  accompanied  the  monarch,  and  were  found  on 
the  person  of  one  of  his  grooms  of  the  chamber.*  Fortified 
by  the  evidence  of  those  rich  prizes,  to  the  intentional 

*  Mr.  Roscoe,  who,  in  his  account  of  this  battle  (Leo  X.  ch.  iv.  vol.  i. 
p.  353,  8vo.),  haa,  we  think,  represented  its  issue  as  more  favourable  to 
the  confederates  than  any  contemporary  authorities  warrant— with  the 
exception  of  some  adulatory  poems,— mentions  in  a  note  some  very  re- 
markable particulars  concerning  part  of  this  booty,  from  which  UtU© 
credit  is  reflected  on  the  good  taste  of  the  French  king. 


130 


PROPOSED  ASSASSINATION  OF 


abandonment  of  which  it  is  probable  that  the  French  were 
greatly  indebted  for  their  triumph,  the  Venetians,  without 
hesitation,  asserted  that  the  day  was  their  own  ;  and  issued 
ordinances  for  the  celebration  of  the  victory  with  great 
public  rejoicing,  not  only  in  the  capital  itself,  but  through- 
out all  their  dominions.  So  also,  in  after-years,  applying 
the  customary  privilege  of  an  epitaph  to  the  support  of  this 
fraud,  they  inscribed  upon  a  tomb  in  the  church  rfe'  Frariy 
in  which  was  interred  one  of  the  provveditori  of  this  cam- 
paign, "  Here  lies  Melchior  Trivisano,  who  fought  prosper- 
ously against  Charles,  King  of  France,  at  the  battle  of  the 
Taro."* 

The  rapid  loss  of  his  Neapolitan  conquests  which  suc- 
ceeded the  return  of  Charles  VIII.  to  France,  and  the  waste 
of  Ufe  and  treasure  which  occurred  in  this  idle,  unjust,  and 
vainglorious  expedition,  fully  verified  a  favourite  axiom  of 

his  father,  "  That  he  who  went  to  seek  victory  in 
liqo     Italy  took  much  trouble  to  buy  a  long  repentance  very 

dearly."!  His  death  relieved  Venice  from  the  in- 
quietude excited  by  his  unrestrained  ambition  ;  and  it  is  to 
the  credit  of  the  Council  of  Ten,  when  we  bear  in  mind  the 
flagitious  maxims  of  their  ordinary  policy,  that  they  rejected 
an  offer  for  his  assassination  by  a  person  of  distinction  in 
Friuli ;  who  engaged  that  one  of  his  domestics,  an  Alba- 
nian, should  either  kill  him  with  his  own  hand,  or  employ 
a  relation,  the  king's  chief  groom  of  the  chamber,  to  take 
him  off  by  poison.t     A  similar  abstinence  at  the  close  of 

*  Guicciardini,  lib.  ii.  p.  58.  The  policy  of  the  battle  of  Taro  is  con- 
sidered and  condemned  by  Parutain  his  Discorsi  Polittci,  ii.  p.  4. 

t  Gamier,  Hist,  de  France,  x.  p.  404.  Ariosto  has  finely  expanded 
this  sentiment  :— 

quasi  tutti 
Gli  altri.  che  poi  di  Francia  scettro  avranno, 
O  di  ferro  gli  eserciti  distrulti, 
O  di  fame,  o  di  peste  si  vedranno ; 
E  che  breve  allegrezze  e  lunghi  lutti, 
Poco  guadagno  ed  infinite  danno 
Riporteran  d'  Italia;  che  non  lice 
Che  '1  Giglio  in  quel  terreno  abbiaradictj.— xxxiii.  10. 

X  The  reply  of  the  Ten  on  this  occasion  was  not  much  in  unison  with 
the  spirit  of  the  statutes  of  the  Inquisition  of  State  :— Che  la  republica 
non  haveva  per  1'  adietro  giamai  tal  modi  usar  contro  alcuno,  ancor  che 
capital  nimico,  tutto  che  piii  volte  ne  havesse  havuto  il  commodo  e  1' 
oecasione,  e  perd  che  ne  anco  hora  lo  voleva  j)€rmettere,  havendo  noslro 


CHARLES  VIII.  AND  LODOVICO  SFORZA.        131 

the  campaign  which  we  have  just  related,  when  the  signory 
were  irritated  by  a  perfidious  act  of  Lodovico  Sforza,  is 
much  praised  by  the  native  historians.     When  that  cratty 
prince,  dissatisfied  with  the  conduct  of  Venice  during  a 
negotiation  for  peace  with  France,  threatened  to  obstruct 
thi  return  of  her  army  to  the  Lagime,  Bernardo  Contarini, 
who  commanded  the   Stradiots,  bluntly  assured  the  prov- 
veditori that  he  knew  a  certain  way  of  opening  a  free  pas- 
sage.    "To-day,"  he  said,  "you  meet  the  duke  and  his 
chief  officers  in  council ;  the  doors  will  be  closed,  and  the 
debates  will  commence  ;  when  I,  stepping  up  as  if  to  speak 
to  him,  will  run  him  through  the  body.     There  is  not  one  ot 
his  attendants  who  will  dare  to  draw  his  sword,  for  they  arc 
all  more  cowardly  than  women."     The  herculean  strengtii, 
the  determined  bravery,  and  the  cool  self-possession  ot  this 
rough  chief  of  brigands,  sufficiently  avouched  that  he  pos- 
sessed  the  means  of  fulfilling  his  offer,  and  the  provveditori 
extolled  his  daring  to  the  skies.     Venetian  honour  would 
have  stood  more  clear  if  they  had  not  thought  it  necessary 
to  submit  this  iniquitous  proposition  to  the  decision  ot  the 
Ten,  who  were  asked  bv  a  despatch  in  cipher  whether,  m 
case  of  necessity,  they  would  permit  its   adoption,      ihe 
council  answered  that  such  a  step  appeared  contrary  to  the 
dignity  of  the  republic* 

It  was  not  long,  however,  before  Venice  saw  her  revenge 
fully  gratified  upon  the  usurper  of  Milan.  The  Duke  ot 
Orleims,  upon  ascending  the  throne  of  France  as  Louis 
XII.,  urged  with  more  than  former  vigour  his  pretensions  to 
that  duchy  ;  and  secured  the  co-operation  ot  Venice  by 
agreeing  to  cede  to  her  a  portion  of  the  spoil.  One  ^  ^^ 
by  one  of  the  allies  of  Sforza  abandoned  hmi,  and  ^^99^ 
remained  inactive  spectators  of  his  approaching  fall ; 
and  as  the  French  advanced  from  the  Alps,  and  the  Vene- 
tians on  his  eastern  frontier,  the  deserted  prince  hurried 
from  his  capital,  and  sought  refuge  at  Inspruck  under  the 
protection  of  the  Emperor  Maximilian.  Before  his  flight, 
he  addressed  some  Venetians  in  words  not  a  little  demon- 
strative of  sagacious  political  foresight.  "  You  have 
brought,"  he  said,  "  the  King  of  France  to  dine  with  me, 
but  rest  assured  it  is  with  you  that  he  will  sup.       J  rom  his 

Siirnor  Iddio  davanti  gli  occhi  miilto  piii  che  le  potenze  degli  huomini.— 
Dogliari,  1st.  Venet,  1.  ix.    But  this  was  an  esoteric  doctrine. 
*  Bembo.  ii.  adjiii 


•    " —  •  .>»aiw.tf»a>a'v«.WWW8<Bt»gj|hi¥allPBiwi 


133 


CAPTIVITY  AND  DEATH 


German  retreat  he  employed  his  large  remaining  treasure 
m  hiring  a  considerable  body  of  Swits,  a  people  who  had 
recently  commenced  their  lucrative  trade  as  the  general 
mercenaries  of  Europe  ;  and  rapidly  marching  with  these 
troops  upon  Milan,  he  compelled  the  French%arrison    o 
retire.     Among  the  few  events  which  distin.ruighed   this 
short  reoccupation  of  his  capital  was  the  capture  of  the 
Chevalier  Bayard  ;  who,  although  at  that  time  still  in  early 
youth,  had  already  begun  to  justify  his  title  to  the  pre-emi- 
nence m  valour  and  m  virtue  which  has  rendered  his  name 
a  proverb.     Too  hastily  pursuing  some  skirmishers  whom 
he  had  routed,  the  brave  knight  galloped  after  the  fugitives 
through  the  very  gates  of  Milan,  without  observing  tha   all 
his  comrades  had  dropped  behind.     Sforza,  hearing  of  the 
adventure,  requested  to  see  the  prisoner,  received  him  with 
marked  courtesy,  expressed  surprise  at  his  youth  and  aal- 
lantry,  and  termmated  the  interview  by  restoring  his  horse 
and  arms,  and  dismissing  him  without  ransom.     Bayard  in 
return  offered  thanks  in  true  chivalric  spirit,  vowina  that   in 
so  far  as  due  regard  to  his  own  honour  and  loyafty  to  his 
sovereign  would  permit,  there  was  no  service  which  he 
would  not  readily  undertake  for  a  prince  so  gracious.     Then 
leaping  mto  his  saddle  without  touching  the  stirrup,  he  ran  a 
short  course,  shivered  his  lance  against  the  ground,  and 
perfomied  some  expert  feats  of  horsemanship  which  drew 
trom  Sforza  s  lips  an  involuntary  avowal,  that  if  the  Kinrr 
of  France  possessed  many  such  knights  as  the  one  beforS 
liim,^his  own  chances  of  success  were  indeed  most  diminu- 

The  Swiss  whom  the  Duke  of  Milan  led  to  oppose  the 
French  were  little  to  be  trusted  ;  they  sold  themselves  to 
the  enemy  broke  out  into  open  mutiny,  demanded  arrears 
of  pay  and  refused  to  act  against  the  ranks  of  Louis,  which 
were  filled  with  their  own  countrymen.  Remon^tra.  ce 
was  vam  ;  and  when  they  persisted  in  disbanding,  the  sole 
favour  which  Sforza  could  procure  was  permissfon  to  ^! 
company  them  m  the   retreat  which    had   been    granted 

^r«tl^N'^  ^r^?  ^^'^   ^   ^''^  '^  hi«   officer!    who 
greatly  dreaded  hard  usage  from  the  foe,  assumed  the  Swiss 

uniform ;  but  Sforza  himself,  whose  well-known  features 

could  scarcely  fail  to  betray  him  under  a  disguise  so  slight, 

*  Hist,  du  Chev.  Bayard,  12. 


OF  LODOVICO  SFORZA. 


133 


i: 


.vrappedhis  head  in  --^;f,-;[;r"'^^^^^ 

p^Ts^th  ough  the  F^^^^^^  arUani;  Xzfa 

haa  captured,  wa8 haughtily ^^"'''f'^J'l'^J '^^j"  te„t  of 

Sct:^\rFomot.     These  demands  -«  concede  ,  and 

the  cardinal,  and  other  branches  of  the  Sfo™  «™"fc';„e. 

distributed  in  captivity  *>^°"g^  ^fTJefnosed  aS 
Lodovico  himself  was  conveyed  to  Lyo°^;  f^P"'*"  =^  ™^. 

dungeons  which  the  1^'^"^  "^  ^°Xo.  ;d  ike  w^^^^  con- 

&%P^3r^V\l%'S.os'';-  h^^^^^^^^ 

Ligue  de  Cambrai,  in  the  begmmngof  J^e  eighteenth  cen 

tu^,  there  were  still  ^-'^^^' ^^^'^XZ^V^JInllthZ 
some  political  maxmis  which  he  had  «';i^'"\^"         j^nj 
durine  the  tedious  hours  of  captivity.     To  «he  atienua 
tZLi  devoted  himself  to  his  service  m  P"^™  he  was  m 
the  habit  of  declaring,  that  o    the  "'.<^"  Y*»  ^^^'V^/'^^ 

*  Antiqniiez  des  Villes  de  France,  i.  592. 
t  pS  Joviu«,  in  vU.  « c,  must.  itr. 

Vol.  it.— M 


rrijl?       A  T  T»T. 


184 


COMMERCE  OF  VENICE. 


THE   ALDI. 


135 


a  calamity,  and  Sforza,  overpowered  by  joy,  breathed  his 
last  in  the  state  chamliers  of  the  castle  a  few  days  after  he 
had  been  transferred  to  them  from  its  dungeon.*  His  re- 
mains were  interred  in  the  magnificent  abbey  within  its  walls. 
A  far  more  agreeable  employment  than  that  of  detailing 
the  chances  of  a  new  Turkish  war  may  be  found  in  a  brief 
review  of  the  powerful  resources,  the  increasing  opulence, 
the  extensive  commerce,  and  the  enlarged  dominions  of 
Venice  at  the  close  of  the  fifteenth  century,  which  we  now 
approach ;  a  point  of  time  which,  perhaps,  may  be  considered 
the  epoch  of  her  loftiest  elevation.  The  discoveries  of  Vasco 
di  Gama  and  of  Columbus  had  begun,  indeed,  to  awaken 
her  jealousy,  but  had  not  as  yet  invaded  her  almost  exclu- 
sive monopoly  of  trade  ;  and  in  her  long  range  of  maritime 
stations  from  the  Po  to  the  eastern  boundary  of  the  Medi- 
terranean and  the  mouth  of  the  Don,  she  continued  to 
gather  and  to  disperse  the  merchandise  of  the  entire  known 
world.  At  home,  her  silk  manufactures,  long  cultivated  in 
the  colonies,  and  introduced  to  the  Lagunc  from  Constan- 
tinople on  a  much  greater  scale,  towards  the  beginning  of 
the  fourteenth  century,  while  interdicted  to  all  but  her 
magistrates  for  domestic  use,  supplied  the  remainder  of 
Christendom  with  its  most  costly  and  most  delicate  attire. 
Spain  and  England  contributed  their  richest  fleeces  to  the 
fabric  of  her  unrivalled  cloths  ;  and  for  linen  the  flax  of 
Lombardy  afforded  inexhaustible  materials.  100,000  ducats 
were  annually  produced  by  a  single  commodity,  at  first 
sight  of  apparently  trifling  value,  gilt  leather.  Liquors, 
confectionary,  and  waxen  tapers,  of  which  last  article  the 
consumption  in  ecclesiastical  services  at  Rome  was  of 
very  considerable  extent,  swelled  the  exports  of  the  Adriatic 
mart.  In  her  laboratories  were  distilled  and  sublimated  the 
choicest  chymical  preparations  required  either  by  medicine 
or  the  arts.  The  glass-houses  of  Murano,  which,  like  her 
silk-looms,  Venice  had  borrowed  from  the  East,  furnished 
some  of  their  most  coveted  luxuries  to  both  the  civilized 
and  the  savage  world ;  decorated  the  gorgeous  palaces  of 
Europe  with  mirrors,  and  the  person  of  the  naked  African 
with  beads.  And  to  omit  numerous  other  minor  sources 
from  which  was  derived  an  influx  of  wealth  and  reputation, 

*  Dubos,  Hist,  de  la  Ligue  de  Cambrai,  iv.,  on  the  authority  of  Lts 
Genealogies  Historiques,  but  the  story  is  discredited  by  Dam.  See  a 
note  at  the  commencement  of  his  xxivth  book. 


i 


) 


i 


Venice  claimed  the  glory  of  adoptmg  at  an  .arly  date,  and 
advancincr  with  a  rapid  hand,  that  invention  which,  above 
evm  oth'er,  has  most  beneficially  alTcctcd  the  permanent 
^elfLe  of  mankind.  Not  more  than  fifteen  vears,  perhaps 
even  sooner,  after  the  discovery  of  prmtmg  J^^^"  f  fF// 
transDorted  it  from  Germany  to  Venice  ;  and  Sanuto  notices 
a  patenHranted  to  him  for  ihe  exclusive  Vubhcation,  during 
fiv^e  yearl,  of  the  Epi.tks  of  Cicero  and  Plmy.*     Nico  as 

Tansen,  ai'id  others  of  much  ^--"f ' -^.^f/l^-if^^^^ 
the  triumph  of  the  art  was  consummated  when  Aldus  Manu- 
tius  a  native  of  Bassiano,  in  the  ecclesiastical  states  es- 
tablished himself  in  the  republic  hi  U88.     The  zeal  of  that 
fustrious  scholar  first  opeLl  at  large^the  ^^^^^^^^^V^^^^^^ 
revealed  stores  of  Greek  literature.     He  invente^  the  Ital^, 
or  cursive  letter,  in  imitation,  as  is  said,  of  the  ^^ndwrit- 
m<r  of  Petrarch;  he  collected  around  him  the  mo.st  d  sUn- 
gulshed  learned  men  of  his  time,  and  m  the  NcacacU^ia 
^hich  he  instituted,  among  other  celebrated  names  were 
counted  those  of  Bembo,  Navagero  ^abelhco  Sanuto,  For- 
ticrucrra,  Alexander  Alberto  Pio,+  Prince  of  Carpi,   and, 

above  a\  of  Erasmus.     That  ^^""^-^^--1^^ ,^,^4"^:^, 
in  their  weekly  meetings  the   authority  and  the  ^arl0us 
readings  of  MSS.,  decided  what  works  most  deserved  to  be 
published,  assisted  in  their  collation  and  transcription,  and 
Ln  corrected  the  sheets  as  they  passed  through   he  press 
To  the  zeal  of  the  elder  Aldus,  of  his  son,  and  of  his  son  s 
son,  for  the  honourable  labours  of  this  family  were  con- 
tinued during  three  successive  generations,   literature  is 
indebted,  not  only  for  some  of  the  choicest  specimens  of 
typography  which  still  adorn  our  libraries,  but  for  the  very 
eXtfnc^e  of  numerous  works,  which,  unless  for  their  skill  and 
assiduity,  would  most  probably  have  been  lost  to  us  for  ever  t 
Such  were  some  of  the  many  springs  from  which  riches 
were  derived  by  the  descendants  of  the  fishermen  of  Riaito. 

;  4L  KS  :;rLVyoung  nobleman  had  been  conjipned  t^^^^^^^^ 

although  he  was  not  much  older  than  lus  P"I"» '  J^J^^^^J  """'J°o? 

strong  attachment,  rormitted  h.s  instructor  to  adopt  the  famil)  name  of 

thphmiseofCarni.  rio;  a  very  honourable  i>nvilege.  ^j  ^«^t 

1  K^  xUth  book  of  Daru's  History  contains  a  «"««'«!!>' ^"•^moet 

ellborate'r'v^w  of  the  s.at.tics  of  Venice  -^ ^^^^^^^^l:''^^,^'::^ 
/.pntiirv   nnon  which  we  have  miefly  relied  for  our  aoove  o"«».°""' 
mary^' Th^biS^aMhy  of  the  Aldi  is  nowhere  better  g.ven  than  m  the 
•econd  volume  of  Renouard's  Annales  de  rimpnmene  des  Aides. 


«.jwae»J^''rf    '<^t^^i:■■tf^^-^^'^r^g^^JfrJ■i 


~   -.vrTn^rr  TITT.   V. 


MPF.ROR  or  GERMANY.    13T 


-^^■^'•^•^•r^MjAs-iii 


136 


DOMINIONS    OF    VENICE. 


Their  territory,  during  the  lapse  of  a  thousand  years,  had 
stretched  itself  from  the  coasts  of  the  Lagune  and  the  nar- 
row ancient  Dogado  over  some  of  the  fairest  provinces  of 
Northern  Italy ;  and  Venice  sw^ayed  on  the  adjoining  Terra 
Firma  the  principality  of  Ravenna,  Trevisano  and  its  de- 
pendencies, Padua,  Vicenza,  Verona,  Crema,  Brescia,  and 
Bergamo.  Friuli  connected  her  with  Istria ;  Zara,  Spoleto, 
and°the  Dalmatic  islands  with  Albania ;  Zante  and  Corfu 
continued  the  chain  to  Greece  and  the  Morea,  and  nu- 
merous islands  in  the  Archipelago  supplied  the  remaining 
links  with  Candia  and  Cyprus. 

To  become  allied  to  or  to  depress  a  state  thus  opulent  and 
powerful  were  important  objects  to  other  governments ; 
and  Venice  accordingly  was  either  courted  or  menaced,  as 
she  appeared  likely  to  assist  or  to  control  the  several  pro- 
jects of  ambition  which  influenced  her  neighbours.  Equally 
mistrusting  Louis  XII.  of  France  and  the  Emperor  Maxi- 
milian,— both  of  whom  indeed,  although  on  terms  of  avowed 
friendship  with  her  republic,  had  not  long  since  contem- 
plated its  dismemberment,  and  signed  a  treaty  at  Blois 
to  that  effect, — she  found  it  most  politic  to  adhere  to  the 
former  in  a  dispute  which  arose  between  them  on  the  disso- 
lution of  that  nefarious  compact.  For  a  few  months, 
tkoft  tbei^^fore,  she  was  involved  in  hostilities  with  the 
emperor ;  during  which,  after  a  complete  victory 
gained  at  Cadauro  by  Bartolomeo  d'Alviano,  when,  if  we 
believe  Navagero,  not  a  single  imperialist  escaped  to  notify 
the  disaster,*  the  fortune  of  war  threw  into  the  hands  of  the 
conquerors  Trieste  and  some  other  important  ports  of  the 
Adriatic.  Maximilian,  whose  prodigality  justly  entailed 
upon  him  the  title  of  "  The  Penniless,"!  unable  to  procure 
supplies  for  the  continuance  of  this  unsuccessful  struggle, 
proposed  a  truce  ;  but  Venice,  with  strict  fidelity  to  her  en- 
gagements, refused  in  the  first  instance  to  treat  separately 
from  her  ally.  The  French  king  extended  this  principle  of 
comprehension  beyond  its  legitimate  bounds,  and  by  obsti- 
nately stipulating,  that  a  minor  power,  the  Duke  of  Gueldres, 
■with  whom  Venice  had  neither  connexion  nor  community 
of  interests,  should  be  included,  broke  off  the  negotiation. 

*  Ne  nuncio  quidem  relicto,  csesl  sunt. 

t  Massimiliano  Pochidanario.  Car  il  estoit  assez  liberal,  et  n'estoit 
possible  trouver  un  meilleur  prince,  s'il  eugt  eu  de  quoy  donner,— is  the 
tly  character  ifiven  of  tliis  einperor  in  tlie  Hist,  de  Ck.  Bayard^  cU.  30. 


1^ 


/ 


TRUCE  WITH  THE  EMPEROR  OF  GERMANY.  UT 

prepared  tor  tnem  *  '  .     ,        • ,   of  Max  miUan  hu- 

dissensions  were  o  l-^ /"^"^^^^'''^P'Jf  i,o„u  unreasonably 
^^W  bv^ha  thi^h  h  t  ™e"isert^  ;  and  the  task  of 
^SnV  thlreW  for  the  P"^--^  -^^X 

hkc  and  J<^-''.''"''y  13  restless  spirit  of  intrigue  whieh  ani- 
^'leTjuft  Jle  mos    aSus  pontilwho  ever  dis- 

League  of  Cambrai. 


M2 


_A 


.1^ 


/•ATTRF.S    OP    THE 


LEAGUE    OF   CAMBRAI. 


138 


CAUSES   OF  THE 


CHAPTER  XV. 

FROM  A.  D.  1608  TO  A.  D.  1609. 

Causes  of  the  League  of  Cambrai— Julius  II.  discloses  it  to  the  Venetians 
—Preparations  for  Resistance— Evil  Omens— Total  Defeat  of  the  Ve- 
netians at  Agnadello— Louis  XIL  at  Mestre— Terror  in  Venice— Loss 
of  all  her  Dominions  on  Terra  Firma- Fortitude  of  the  Government- 
Measures  for  Defence— Decree  releasing  the  Provinces  from  Alle- 
giance—Favourable Negotiation  with  the  Pope— Successful  Resist- 
ance of  Treviso— Surprise  of  Padua— Maximilian  prepares  for  ita 
Siege— Capture  of  the  Duke  of  Mantua— Brilliant  Defence  of  Padua- 
Achievements  of  the  Chevalier  Bayard— The  German  Men-at-arms 

,   reAise  to  mount  the  Breach— Maximilian  raises  the  Siege  in  disgust. 


DOGE. 

Leonardo  Loredano. 


The  lovers  of  minute  history  may  have  the  gratification  of 
tracing  the  events  which  now  open  upon  us,  in  a  great  degree, 
to  petty  causes  and  personal  feelings.  That  such  were  the 
immediate  sources  from  which  the  great  confederacy  against 
Venice  arose  is  little  to  be  doubted ;  but  the  universal  jea- 
lousy which  her  wealth,  her  prudence,  and  her  prosperity 
excited,  the  mortification  with  which  France,  Spain,  and 
Germany  beheld  themselves  rivalled,  and  in  many  points 
excelled,  by  a  power  whose  dominions  did  not  equal  a  tenth 
part  of  any  one  of  their  kingdoms,  were  deeply  rooted  and 
of  long  standing.  The  biographer  of  the  Chevalier  Bayard 
has  indeed  approached  very  near  the  truth  when  he  informs 
us,  in  his  characteristic  manner,  that  nothing  is  more  cer- 
tain than  that  the  alliance  of  those  crowns  was  formed  "  to 
ruin  the  signory  of  Venice,  which  in  great  pomp  and  with 
little  regard  to  God  lived  gloriously  and  gorgeously,  making 
small  account  of  the  other  princes  of  Christendom  ;  where- 
fore, perhaps,  our  lord  was  angry  with  them,  as  plainly  ap- 


I 


LEAOTJE  OF  CAMBRAI. 


139 


™.»rea  "•  The  pope  regarded  with  an  evil  eye  the  acqui- 
Sof  Venice  in  Lmagna,  some  made  long  smce,  other, 
more  recently  on  the  overthrow  of  Cesare  Borgia;  and  the 
r«rTthat  turbulent  old  man  burst  all  restramt,  when  he 
Sd  that  the  senate,  acting  upon  their  accustomed  pol.cy 
of  withstanding  all  interference  in  matters  ecclesiastical, 
had  refused  to^dmit  his  collation  of  one  of  his  nephews, 
whom  he  wished  to  succeed  another  just  deceased,  m  the 

vacant  see  of  Vicenza ;  and  had  no"'"'''^^,,'' „^'^^°P' ^^.'^'f' 
*itlp  ran  "Bv  the  grace  of  the  most  excellent  Council  ot 
PrtS't    t^orgetting  that  he  owed  his  elevation  to   he 
pontificate  mainll  to  the  influence  of  the  republic  m  the 
Save  the  impetuous  priest  lost  not  a  moment  in  pro- 

^"osSg  t;  the  court  of  FrLce  a  lef?«^  f»V^!,7ATboisf 
all  the  Venetian  dominions ;  and  the  Cardinal  d  Amboise, 
who  swayed  the  councils  of  Louis  XII.,  wel  remembering, 
Tn  the  other  hand,  that  his  hopes  of  *etnple  crown  had 
been  frustrated  bv  the  very  agency  for  which  his  successlul 
comp"  ow  manifested  himself  ungrateful,  eagerly  slim- 
S^  his  master  to  compliance.     A  motive  equally  per- 
sonal affected  the  determination  ?f  "f  imiUan.    No  only 
had  his  arms  been  recently  and  signally  discomfited  by  he 
hauffhtv  republicans,  but  they  had  revived  and  protracted 
KirTby  the  'triumphal  reception  of  the" -tonous 
General  d'Alviano ;  and  by  continumg  to  exhibit  the  dress, 
habits  manners,  aid  lan^age  of  the  Germans  and  their 
emVerorTobjects  of  popular'  ridicule,  in  ludicrous  specta- 
cksrtage  buffooneries,  and  satirical  cancatures.t     One 
other  occlrrence  tended  to  heighten  the  mdignat.on  thus 
tapruSy  generated.     But  a  few  days  after  his  signature 
Tthe  late  tmce,  Maximilian  proposed  to  the  fS^"^'^ 
Xnce  for  the  expulsion  of  the  French  from  Italy,  and  the 
Son  of  their  Cisalpine  territories.     That  offer  was  not 
onlv  declined,  but  was  also  revealed  to  Louis ;  and  the  dis- 
closure, wUhout  creating  a  new  ftiend.  exasperated  the 

virulence  of  a  former  enemy.  j  i„  i  o«  fai. 

To  these  three  high  contracting  parties  was  added,  so  for 

as  his  habitually  cautious  and  tardy  policy  would  aUow, 

♦  Ch.  xxviil. 

t  Guicciardinl,  lib.  viii.  vol.  1!.  p.  1^8.  TTn„«finvr  r^  SOi 

i  Harangue  de  Louis  Helian,  ap.  iinelot  de  la  Houssajc,  p.  8»t. 


JULIUS   II.    AVOWS    IT. 


140 


VENICE    SUSPECTS    THE    LEAGUE. 


JULIUS    IL    AVOWS    IT. 


141 


Ferdinand  of  Aragon,  allured  by  the  promised  restitution  of 
the  maritime  cities  of  Naples.  But  when  the  Cardinal 
d'Amboise,  as  plenipotentiary  of  France,  and  Margaret  of 
Austria,  the  widowed  Duchess  of  Savoy,  a  woman  of  mas- 
culine temper  and  attainments,  as  representative  of  her 
father  the  emperor,  met  at  Cambrai,  neither  the  papal  nun- 
cio nor  the  envoy  of  Spain  had  received  full  powers.  Un- 
deterred by  this  obstacle,  which  might  have  retarded  less 
prompt  diplomatists,  the  princess  and  the  cardinal,  neither 
of  whom  appears  to  have  required  assessors,  negotiated 
with  extraordinary  rapidity  ;  and,  as  may  be  surmised  from 
a  letter  written  by  the  former,  not  without  considerable 
occasional  vivacity  of  discussion.  "  The  cardinal  and  I," 
says  this  high-spirited  lady,  "  have  been  very  nearly  pulling 
each  other's  hair !"  But  the  consent  of  the  other  powers 
having  been  assumed,  they  speedily  reconciled  any  differ- 
ences between  themselves. 

The  ostensible  pretext  for  this  congress  was  an  adjust- 
ment of  the  affairs  of  Gueldres ;  to  which  avowed  object 
countenance  was  given  by  the  employment  of  Margaret, 
who  administered  the  government  of  Flanders  ;  and  a 
second  and  far  greater  design  was  rumoured  to  be  the  form- 
ation of  a  confederacy  against  the  Turks.  Infinite  pains 
were  taken  to  veil  the  real  proceedings  from  the  penetra- 
tion of  the  Venetian  ambassador ;  the  King  of  France 
■was  lavish  in  his  professions  of  continued  amity,  and  did 
not  hesitate  to  pledge  the  faith  of  a  prince  in  coniirmation 
of  his  pacific  intentions.  Suspicion  was  first  excited  in 
the  breast  of  the  secretary  of  the  council  resident  at  Milan, 
to  whom  it  was  reported  that  a  native  of  Carmagnuola  had 
been  heard  to  express  vehement  delight  at  the  prospect  of 
soon  seeing  the  murder  of  his  great  townsman  revenged 
upon  its  perpetrators.  The  sagacity  of  the  minister  dis- 
covered the  clew  which  unravelled  the  mystery  of  this  boast; 

and  he  warned  his  government  accordingly.  He 
1508  '  ^^^  correct  in  his  surmise ;  for  the  treaty  was  already 

signed,  by  which,  according  to  its  general  outline, 
the  pope  was  to  wrest  from  their  present  lords  Rimini, 
Faenza,  and  Ravenna ;  the  emperor  to  enrich  himself  by 
Treviso,  Istria,  Friuli,  Padua,  Verona,  and  Vicenza ;  the 
King  of  France  to  obtain  Bergamo,  Brescia,  Crema,  and 
Cremona;. and  the  King  of  Aragon  and  Naples  to  seize 


} 


inftn  the  five  great  ports  which  Venice  held  in  pledge,  with- 
oStr  Wing  the  200,000  crowns  for  which  they  had  been 
nTorttrLed.  The  preamble  to  this  act  of  spoliation  re- 
Toachld  the  Venetians  for  the  obstacle  which  they  had 
raised  against  a  crusade,  by  retaining  ccrtam  dominions  of 
the  holy  see ;  and  declared  the  motives  of  the  allies  to  be  no 
other  than  to  procure  restitution  of  these  usurped  territo- 
ries for  the  glory  and  the  deliverance  of  Christendom. 

But  no  sooner  had  Louis  made  powerful  demonstrations 
of  his  earnestness  in  the  cause,  by  rapidly  assem-     ^   ^ 
bling  troops  even  in  the  depth  of  winter,   and  sedu-    ^^^^^ 
lously  preparing  for  a  passage  of  the  Alps  m  the 
ensufn|spring,\han  the  pope  repented  the  }ssue  of  hisrash 
impatience.     He  trembled  at  a  fresh  irruption  of  Tramon- 
tanes, who  would  again  ravage  and  overrun  Italy;  and  he 
soucrht  to  avert,  or  at  least  to  mitigate,  the  danger  which 
he  had  too  hastily  provoked.     Finding  that  some  indirect 
suffffestions  were  misunderstood  or  neglected  by  the  Ve- 
netian ambassador,  he  took  an  opportunity  of  obtaining  a 
private  conversation  by  seating  hhn  in  his  own  barge  dunng 
a  water  party;  and  he  then  openly  reveakd  the  existence 
and  the  terms  of  the  league;  adding,  that  if  the  towns 
which  he  claimed  were  restored,  he  would  not  only  forbear 
to  ratify,  but  he  would  endeavour  to  dissolve  it.      1  tie  sen- 
ate received  this  unwelcome  and  unexpected  communication 
with  surprise,  but  with  dignity;  they  had  been  deceived 
and  lulled  into  security,  but  they  now  encountered  the  peril 
when  fully  displayed  with  a  fortitude  which  their  enemies 
stigmatized  as  rash  and  impolitic  arrogance  ;  but  which  a 
less  prejudiced  judgment  will  attribute  to  a  natural  desire 
of  self-preservation,  a  love  of  freedom,  a  consciousness  oi 
strength,  and  a  belief  in  the  righteousness  of  their  cause. 
A  brief  refusal  was  conveyed  to  Julius  ;  some  fruitless  at- 
tempt at  negotiation  was  made  with  the  emperor ;  an  una- 
vailbia  application  was  addressed  to  the  1  urkish  sultan ; 
and  Henry  VIII.,  who  but  a  few  months  before  had  as- 
cended  the  throne  of  England,  and  who  already  had  been 
solicited  by  the  opposite  party,*  was  urged,  but  without  et- 
fect,  to  make  a  descent  upon  France  dunng  the  absence  ot 
her  chief  warriors.!     Meantime  Louis  despatched  a  herald 

*  See  the  Treatv  of  Cambrai,  n^ntd  Lunig.  Codex  Diplom.  Ital.  i.  134. 
t  UiLSLanT(2.p.  281)  afilrnistbat  ileary  accclcd  to  the  league,  and 


■  jigMtjawa6fli««<!«ite!i<a»aJitii^ 


142 


EVIL  OMENS. 


THF,  FRENCH  PASS  THE  ADDA. 


143 


142 


EVIL  OMENS. 


THE  FRENCH  PASS  THE  ADDA. 


143 


with  a  formal  declaration  of  war ;  tho  pope  launched  the 
idle  thunders  of  a  bull ;  and  in  order  to  disembarrass  Max- 
imilian from  any  imputation  of  perjury  in  his  causeless 
breach  of  a  treaty  to  which  his  signature  was  yet  scarcely 
dry,  Julius  called  upon  him  by  name,  as  defender  of  the 
rights  of  the  church,  to  enter  the  Venetian  territories  in 
arms  within  forty  days.  So  flimsy  is  the  sophistry  by 
which  a  great  crime  can  be  veiled  from  the  eyes  even  of  its 
perpetrator,  if  its  commission  be  advantageous  to  his  in- 
terests ! 

Evil  omens,  as  they  were  afterward  considered,  however 
disregarded  at  the  time,  were  not  wanting  as  harbmgers  of 
this  war.     Fires  ravaged  the  small  islands  of  the  LagunCy 
and  Candia  trembled  with  an  earthquake ;  the  citadel  of 
Brescia  was  damaged  by  lightning;   a  galley  conveyinfr 
treasure  to  Ravenna  foundered  at  sea  ;  the  public  registry 
in  Venice  fell  to  the  ground,  destroying  numerous  ardiives 
of  the  republic  beneath  its  ruins  ;  and  an  explosion  of  gun- 
powder blew  up  a  great  portion  of  the  arsenal,  and  burned 
twelve  galleys  to  the  water's  edge,  enveloping  the  great 
council  chamber  in  volumes  of  smoke,  terrifying  the  assem- 
bled senators  from  their  deliberations  by  its  hideous  noise, 
and  scattering  showers  of  ashes  through  the  remotest  quar- 
ters of  the  city.     Lest  these  natural  portents,  which  aro 
avouched  by  grave  historians,  should  fail  to  arouse  men*s 
vigilance  and  fears,  a  miracle  was  added,  which,  it  must  be 
confessed,  however,  rests  on  no  other  authority  than  that 
of  a  poet.     Valeriano,  when  addressing  a  long  copv  of  Latin 
elegiacs  to  his  preceptor  Sabellico,   informs  him  that  an 
image  of  the  Virgin  in  the  church  at  Lido  covered  the  Bam- 
bino with  her  veil,  and  thrice  uttered  the  fear-awakenina 
words,  "  Terra  fleas  /"*  ^^ 

Undismayed  by  these  prodigies,  the  republic  marshalled 
her  forces,  amounting  to  30,000  foot  and  nearly  18,000 
horse,  all  well  equipped  and  plentifully  appointed.  The 
greater  part  of  this  array  was  assembled  on  the  Oglio  (a 

he  is  followed  io  this  statement  by  Hume.  Daru  contradicts  them  The 
Duke  of  Savoy,  the  Duke  of  Ferrara,  and  the  Marquis  of  Mantua  cer- 
tamly  joined  the  alliance,  aud  the  last  two  were  personally  distinguished 
in  the  course  of  the  war. 

*  Jo.  Pierii  Valerian!  De  Porteniis  anteaquam  totus  terrarum  orbia  in 
Venetos  conspiraret,  printed  by  Roscoe,  Leo  X.  App.  lix. 


i 


\n 


secondary  line  of  defence  on  the  Milanese  frontier,  the  Adda 
being  the  first)  at  the  wish  of  the  signory,  and  with  the 
approval  of  their  general  in  chief  the  Count  di  Petigliano. 
D'Alviano,  his  second  in  command,  a  soldier  of  more  enter- 
prising spirit,  urged  bolder  measures,  but  was  overruled  ; 
he  wished  to  act  upon  the  oflensivc  in  the  outset^  and  to  pen- 
etrate the  Milanese  before  it  was  occupied  by  the  invaders. 
The  victories  of  that  brave  commander,  in  the  late  short 
German  war,  warranted  more  confidence  than  he  appears 
to  have  inspired.  His  valour  had  raised  him  from  the  ranks, 
yet  he  offered  the  singular  spec*;.clc  of  a  general  who, 
amid  the  tumult  of  a  camp,  found  leisure  for  the  repose  of 
literature  ;  and  in  the  campaign  which  we  are  now  describ- 
ing he  was  attended  by  three  Venetians  eminently  distin- 
guished by  their  genius  and  their  cultivation  of  the  muses, 
Navagiero,  Fracastoro,  and  Giovanni  Cotta ;  all  members 
of  an  academy  which  D'Alviano  himself  had  established  on 
his  domain  at  Pordenone.  The  French,  meantime,  in  num- 
ber 12,000  horse  and  20,000  foot,.of  which  last  more  than 
a  fourth  consisted  of  Swiss,  advancing  by  rapid  marches, 
crossed  the  Adda  at  the  bridge  of  Cassano,  about  five  miles 
from  the  Venetian  camp,  without  opposition,  and  to  the 
astonishment  of  the  veteran  Trivulzio ;  who,  well  acquainted 
with  the  country,  and  perceiving  the  great  advantage  thus 
gained,  assured  Louis  that  in  passing  that  river  he  had  al- 
ready obtained  a  victory.  During  four  successive  days, 
the  invaders  presented  themselves  in  front  of  the  Venetian 
camp,  the  strength  of  which  forbade  attack,  in  the  hope  of 
provoking  battle.  But  Petigliano,  obstinately  resolved  on 
the  defensive,  remained  motionless,  although  a  village  within 
gunshot  was  sacked  before  his  eyes  ;  and  awaiting  the  sure 
operation  of  delay  upon  an  enemy  having  to  seek  supplies 
in  a  hostile  country,  he  persisted  in  restraining  the  more 
fiery  spirit  of  his  colleague. 

This  inactivity  disconcerted  Louis ;  who,  with  greater 
ardour  than  policy,  anxiously  wished  to  bring  the' Venetians 
to  a  trial  of  strength,  before  the  arrival  of  his  allies  might 
deprive  him  of  any  portion  of  glory.  His  sole  hope  of 
forcing  an  action  now  remained  in  the  possibility  of  inter- 
cepting his  enemy's  communication  with  their  magazines  at 
Crema  and  Cremona ;  and  for  that  purpose  the  occupation 
of  the  little  towns  of  Vaila  and  Pandino  appeared  necea- 


144 


BATTLE  OF  AGNADELLa. 


CAPTIVITY  OF  D  ALVIAXO. 


145 


sary  in  the  first  instance.     Two  roads  approached  those 
posts,  one  across  a  marshy  plain,  circuitous,  but  easy  ;  the 
other  much  shorter,  but  along  difficult  heights.     The  French 
May  14.  ^^^^^  choice  of  the  fonner,  and  the  Venetian  generals, 
perceiving  their  movement,  and  divining  its  object,, 
resolved  to  anticipate  them  by  taking  the  shorter  line.    Pe- 
tigliano  led  the  van,  and  had  already  approached  Vaila, 
when  he  received  notice  from  D'Alviano  that  the  rear*  un- 
der his  command  was  engaged,  and  required  support.     Ei- 
ther jealous  of  bis  brother  commander,  or  thinking  that  he 
wished  to  entrap  him  into  a  battle,  Petigliano  answered  by 
ordering  him  to  continue  his  march,  and  to  avoid  any  en- 
gagement, in  obedience  to  the  instructions  of  the  signory. 
But  the  advice  arrived  too  late  ;  the  rear  of  the  Venetians 
was  already  overtaken  by  the  French  van,  at  a  point  near 
the  village  of  Agnadello,  where  the  two  roads  which  the 
opposite  armies  were  traversing,  hitherto  concealed  from 
each  other  by  a  thick  intervening  wood,  were  now  separated 
only  by  a  ravine.     D'Alviano,  observing  that  the  ground 
which  he  occupied  at  the  moment  was  favourable  for  artil- 
lery, halted,  opened  a  brisk  cannonade,  and  threw  the  in- 
fantry, of  which  his  force  principally  consisted,  into  some 
rough  vineyards,  which  prevented  the  advance  of  the  French 
cavalry.     At  first  he  was  most  successful,  and  his  batteries 
mowed  doven  the  Swiss  and  the  men-at-arms,  as  they  inef- 
fectually attempted  the  passage  of  the  ravine,  till  they  wa- 
vered and  gave  way.     But  at  that  critical  moment  Louis, 
m  person,  brought  up  the  main  body ;  the  ardour  of  the 
French  redoubled  at  the  presence  of  their  king ;  and  the 

*  Mr.  Roscoe  in  narrating  this  battle,  says-"  Of  the  Venetian  army 
D  Alviano  led  the  attack,  the  Count  of  Petigliano  with  the  battle  andcav- 
f\y  occupied  the  centre,  and  the  rear-giiard  was  commanded  by  Antonio 
rte  Pu,  accompanied  by  the  Venetian  commissaries,"  and  a  little  onwards 

their  ?;a?i-5-?<rtrrf  was  defeated  with  immense  loss"  (ch.  viii  vol  ii  p  69) 
Now  the  events  of  the  engagement  plainly  require  that  Petigliano  should 
Dein  the  van,  and  D'Alviano  in  the  rear;  without  which  arrangement 
the  former,  in  the  course  of  his  advance,  musf,  even  against  his  will 
have  come  up  to  the  assistance  of  the  latter.  And  such  is  the  disposition 
Which  Guicciardini  assigns,  "  II  retroguardo  de'  Venetiani  guidato  da 
Bartolomw  D'Alviano;"  and  again,  "  significatasubitamenteal  Conte  di 
retigiiano  che  andava  innanzi,"  lib.  viii.  vol.  ii.  p.  202.  So  too  Bembo 
—  prior  ab  exiTemA,  cui  Livianus  praerat,  tria  miUia  paasuum  abesset.'^ 
v^lii^  Arr'h        ,.^A'!!?^.'l''^"°"'''y  "^^  ^^  historians,  AgnadeUo, 

a  t  SC  t^'^'^'^^'^^'^  ^'^?  ^'^^^^"y  ^^  ^  t^e  Adda).    It  has  afforded 
a  suDject  tor  Titian  s  pencil. 


* 


1 
I 

/ 


/ 


) 


Swiss,  pressing  across  the  dry  bed  of  the  torrent,  swept 
tlirouifh  the  vineyards,  and  drove  the  Venetian  infantry, 
forced  back,  but  not  disordered,  into  plainer  ground,  upon 
which  the  mon-at-arms  at  length  could  charge.  Louis, 
sword  in  hand,  rode  to  all  parts  of  the  field,  amid  the  hea- 
viest fire  ;  and  when  solicited  not  to  expose  himself  to  un- 
necessary hazard,  be  answered,  "  This  is  nothing ;  you  see 
that  /  am  not  afraid,  and  those  who  are  so  may  shelter 
themselves  behind  me  !"*  The  combat  endured  for  three 
hours ;  and  at  its  close,  GOOO  Venetian  infantry,  after  a 
noble  resistance,  in  which  not  a  man  swerved  from  his  rank, 
were  left  upon  the  field. 1  D'Alviano,  and  many  of  his  chief 
oflicers,  were  taken  prisoners  ;  twenty  pieces  of  cannon  fell 
into  the  hands  of  the  conquerors  ;  and  Petigliano,  although 
not  engaged,  accomplished  his  retreat  to  Peschiera  in  safety, 
only  by  being  too  fiir  in  advance  for  pursuit.t  D'Alviano 
had  been  wounded,  while  dismounted  and  awaiting  a  fresh 
horse,  and  he  surrendered  to  the  Seigneur  de  Vendenesse, 
"  a  right  little  lion,"*?"  as  he  is  described  by  Bayard's  faithful 
chronicler.  Bleeding  and  bruised,  the  prisoner  was  con- 
ducted to  the  royal  tent,  and  honourably  entertained.  After 
dinner  the  king  sounded  a  false  alarm,  in  order  to  make  trial 
of  the  vigilance  of  his  troops  ;  and  having  asked  D'Alviano, 
with  apparent  surprise,  if  he  could  conjecture  the  occasion 
of  the  sudden  tumult,  the  captured  general  answered,  with 
a  keen  remembrance  of  his  late  abandonment  by  his  com- 
rades, "  Sire,  if  there  be  any  more  battle  just  now,  your 
troops  must  be  fighting  with  one  another ;  for,  as  for  ours,  I 
pledge  my  Ufe  that  you  will  not  see  any  more  of  them  for  a 
fortniorht  to  come. "II 

D'Alviano  beguiled  his  subsequent  hours  of  confinement 
by  writing  commentaries  on  his  own  life,  which  Paulus 
Jovius  states  that  he  had  read.    The  severity  of  his  jailers 

*  Brantome,  Louis  XIT. 

t  The  Seigneur  de  Flciiranges,  in  his  agreeable  but  not^  verj-  methodi- 
cal M6 moires,  e.vaggerp.tes  the  loss  in  this  action  to  38,000  men,  au 
compte  fait  I 

t  Daru  believes  thnt  Petigliano  was  engaged,  and  quitted  the  field  only 
when  he  perceived  the  fortune  of  the  day  to  be  adverse.  Bemho  is 
silent  respectinir  him.  Guicciardini  expressly  says,  that  the  combatants 
became  dispirited,  "popra  tutto  mancando  il  soccorso  de'  suoi ;"'  and 
again  yet  more  strongly,  "il  Conte  di  Pitigliano  s' astenne  dal  faito 
d'arme,"  lib.  viii.  vol.  ii.  p.  202. 

$  Un  droict  petit  lyon,  eh.  xxix.  II  M  ibid 

Vol.  II.— N 


v^/ 


146 


SUCCESSES    OF    THE    FRENCH. 


I 


denied  him  the  use  of  proper  implements  ;  his  paperthere- 
lore  was  of  the  coarsest  and  vilest  nature  ;*  his  pens  were 
bristles  stealthily  secreted  from  the  broom  which  swept  the 
chamber   and  his  ink  was  pounded  charcoal   mingled  with 
wme       The  two  pomts  in  this  autobiography  which  most 
f^fy'ff>'.''^^\^^^  Bishop  of  Nocem's  memory  wer; 
that   D'Alyiano,   hke   Macduff,   was    "from   his    mother's 
womb  untimely  ripped,"  and  that  he  was  born  with  Mars 
m  the  ascendant  ;    from  which  horoscope  the  astroloacrs 
predicted  that  he  would  be  a  great  captain,  and    receive 
certain  wounds  on  the  head  and  forehead,  which  it  was 
impossible  he  should  escape. 

Success  was  vigorously  pursued ;  and  well  were  it  for 
the  fome  of  Louis  if  he  had  forborne  from  sullying  his 
laurels  by  cruelty  But  as  he  overran  the  adjoining 
country,  his  main  design  appears  to  have  been  to  fix  a  deen 
impression  of  terror  For  that  purpose  he  hanged  the 
gallant  soldiers  who  dared  to  nmintain  the  walls  of  Cara- 
vaggio  ;  and  in  the  citadel  of  Pescliiera  also,  which  he 
entered  by  assault  after  Petigliano  had  abandoned  its 
defence,  the  whole  garrison  was  put  to  the  sword.     There 

inn  nnn^^.  V      f  ^'^^"«^'  ^  ""^le  Venetian,   proffered 
100,000  ducats  for  the  ransom  of  himself  and  his  son,  the 
king,  in  spite  of  a  promise  of  quarter  given  by  some  of  his 
officers,  swore  that  he  would  neither  eat  nor  drink  while 
his  enemies  remained  alive  ;  and   gibbeted  them  both  on 
the  same  gallows  above  the  battlements  of  their  own  castle. 
In  a  fortnight  after  his  victory,  the  whole  of  the  towns 
which    the   treaty    of   Cambrai    had    apportioned    to    him 
submitted   to   his    arms,  and  he  received,   and    faithfully 
appropriated  to  the  emperor,  the  keys  of  many  other  placel 
belonging  to  the  imperial  allotment.     The  citadel  of  Cre- 
mona was  the  only  stronghold  which  continued  to  resist  • 
and  the  obstinacy  of  its  defence   arose  from  the  avarice 

wp^lt^   V        •''''  ^T'"^^^  exorbitant  ransoms   from  the 
wealthy  Venetians  who  had  sought  refuge  in  its  walls,  and 

hrT'lT^  '^'  ""^"""^^  ^''''''^'  «f  ^^r  to  certain  ruin 
by  the  disbursement  of  their  whole  substance.     At  length 

the  want  of  naval  means  forbade  his  army  from  penetrating, 

vir  Jv./''^^'^  '''^'^"^  P''P^'°  "  '*^""^«  '^"'""^  <^<^'aia.    (Eiog.  niust. 


DISASTROUS    SITUATION   OF   VENICE.  147 

he  raised  a  battery  of  six  guns  at  Fusina ;  and  discharged 
from  it  tive  or  six  hundred  cannon-shots  at  random,  in  the 
direction  of  the  capital,  in  order  that  posterity  might  be 
told  that  the  King  of  France  had  bombarded  the  impreg- 
nable city  of  Venice.* 

Since  that  eventful  morning  which  announced  to  Venice 
the  storming  of  Chiozza,  no  disaster  had  befallen  her 
which  struck  grief  so  profound  into  her  citizens,  or 
awakened  in  them  so  well  justified  a  terror  as  the  battle 
of  Agnadello.  Surprise  also  was  mingled  with  alarm  ;  for 
the  sanguine  despatches  of  D'Alviano  had  inspired  strong 
liopes  of  success,  from  the  very  outset  of  the  campaign. 
But  now,  instead  of  the  realization  of  those  bright  pros- 
pects, the  French  skirted  the  l»orders  of  the  Lagunc  ;  the 
papal  troops  spread  themselves  over  Romagna,  occupied 
the  towns  which  t)ie  holy  fiither  claimed,  and,  in  imitation 
of  their  allies,  butchered  the  nrarrisons  of  such  as  resisted  ; 
the  Duke  ofFerrara  and  the  Marquis  of  Mantua  recovered 
those  territories  to  which  they  asserted  hereditary  pre- 
tensions ;  the  King  of  Spain,  who  had  hitherto  worn  the 
mask  of  friendship,  now  withdrew  his  ambassador  and 
despatched  troops  to  Naples ;  and  although  the  imperial 
army  had  not  as  yet  taken  the  field,  numerous  partisans  of 
Maximilian  rose  in  arras,  possessed  themselves  of  many 
important  places  in  Istria  and  Friuli,  and  induced  Trieste 
and  other  towns  won  from  the  emperor  in  the  late  war  to 
revert  to  their  former  master.  A  sinfjle  blow  had  shattered 
m  pieces  the  goodly  fabric  of  continental  dominion  which 
it  had  cost  Venice  the  toil  of  a  century  to  erect ;  and  her 
claim  to  a  place  in  the  catalogue  of  European  states  now 
rested  solely  on  the  scanty  boundary  of  her  islands.  Her 
army,  levied  by  extraordinary  exertion  and  expense,  was 
dissipated  with  scarcely  a  hope  of  recovery  ;  for  besides  the 
heavy  loss  sustained  in  battle,  desertion  thinned  it  in  flight, 
and  disobedience  and  want  of  discipline,  the  too  frequent 
consequences  of  defeat,  impaired  the  fidelity  and  diminished 
the  attachment  of  those  who  still  abided  by  their  leaders  ; 
so  that  a  scanty  and  little-trustworthy  force  of  5000  horse 
and  1500  foot  was  all  that  could  now  be  mustered  under 
the  walls  of  Verona.    Even  if  men  could  be  found  to  recruit 

*  Brantome,  Louis  XTT.    The  Abbi';  du  Boa  contests  this  fact,  and 
maintains  that  Louis  XII.  did  not  advance  beyond  Verona. 


148 


FORTITODK.  F.KFRRV.    AKn    WTcnniK 


I 


rw    TTIT    ^rTVT"rTAVC. 


UQ 


148  FORTITDDE,  ENERGY,  AND    WISDOM 

its  battalions,  money  was  likely  to  be  wanting  for  their 
support.  All  that  loans  and  voluntary  gifts  and  retrench- 
ment could  produce  had  already  been  exhausted  in  prepa- 
ration ;  and  if  treasure  could  now  be  anywhere  obtained, 
it  seemed  imperative  that  it  should  be  employed  principally 
in  naval  equipment ;  in  order  to  oppose  a  Heet  which  the 
French  were  preparing  at  Genoa,  and  whose  most  probable 
destination  was  the  Adriatic. 

But  it  seems  throughout  the  history  of  this  most  singular 
people,  that  their  seasons  of  deepest  calamity  were  those 
which  produced  also  the  most  overflowing  harvests  of  glory. 
In  the  moments  of  depression  and  disaster  upon  which  we 
are  now  pausing,  when  it  might  be  thought  that  men's 
hearts    would    fail   them    for   fear, — notwithstanding    the 
natural  agitation  of  the  populace  in  the  capital,  the  closing 
of  the  shops,  the   suspension  of  all  pubHc  business,  the 
thronging  of  a  terrified  rabble  to  the  ducal  palace  and  to 
the  very    doors   of  the  council-chamber,  and   the   hourly 
rumours  of  fresh  peril  which  it  was  not  easy  for  exagge- 
ration to  heighten  beyond  reality, — we  find  the  government 
preserving  a  dignified  calmness,  which  enabled  it  to  consult 
in  all  things  the  true  welfare  of  the  republic.     One  aged 
senator,  long  invalided,  arose  from  a  sick  couch,  and  was 
borne  in  a  litter  to  the  hall  of  assembly,  that  he  might  not 
be  wanting  to  his  country  in  the  time  of  her  trial ;  and  the 
wisdom  of  his  advice  lent  fresh  courage  to  her  defenders. 
Their  earliest  precautions  were  naturally  directed  to  the 
safety  of  Venice  itself.     All  foreigners  resident  in  the  city, 
unless  for  purposes  of  business,  were  ordered  to  withdraw  ; 
mills  were  constructed,  and  wells  sunk  in  the  Aggcre ;  the 
public  tanks  and  granaries  were  cleansed  and  replenished ; 
the  canals  were  blockaded  and  the  buoys  removed  ;  nightl)- 
patroles  were  established  on  the  several  islands  ;  arms  were 
distributed  among  the  young  and  able-bodied  inhabitants  ; 
and  the   city  was  placed   in   all   points   in  condition  to 
maintain  a  siege.    The  patriotism  of  individuals  contributed 
large   funds   to   the  empty  treasury  ;    fifty   galleys   were 
rnanned  from  the  arsenal ;  and  the  garrisons  employed  on 
distant  stations,  not  only  in  Italy,  but  in  Greece  also  and 
Illyria,  were  recalled  home  to  join  the  reduced  and  almost 
disorganized  army  of  Petigliano. 

Those  first  and  most  pressing  necessities  having  received 


I 


OF  THE  VENETIANS. 


149 


I 


attention,   the   council   next   addressed   itself  to   matters 
of  more  general  import.     In  a  spirit  similar  to  that  which 
animated  the  Romans  after  their  overthrow  at  Cannie,  they 
despatched  messengers  to  Petigliano,  expressing   thanks 
for   his    great   constancy.     Then  by  a  stroke   of  master 
policy,  of  which  we  know  not  whether  most  to  admire  the 
wisdom  or  the  magnnnimity,  they  issued  a  decree  releasing 
the  endangered  provinces  from  all  obligations  of  fidelity  to 
a  state  no  longer  able  to  afibrd  them  protection.    Prudence 
dictated  this    sacrifice  of  a  dominion   which   hnd    almost 
ceased  to  exist  except  in  imagination  ;    for  should   their 
subjects,  now  enfranchised,  be  ever  regained,  they  would 
return  with  an  attachment  strongly  increased,  by   grateful 
remembrance  of  the  generosity  which  had  permitted  them 
to  bend  to  the  storm,  when  to  withstand  it  might  be  de- 
struction.    No  apprehension  for  the  future  could  be  felt  by 
those  who  were  thus  authorized  to  submit  to  circumstances ; 
and  at  the  first  dawning  of  weakness  or  disunion  among 
their   conquerors,  they  might  hasten  to  renew  allegiarice 
to    their   ancient    mjisters,    undeterred    by   the   necessity 
of  excusing  their   past   involuntary  abandonment.      The 
next  step  was  to  attempt  negotiation  ;  and  here,  even  had 
the  signory  felt  any  desire  to  treat  with  France,  the  conduct 
of  Louis  XII.  must  have  deprived  them  of  all  expectation 
of  success.     His  disiumulation  and  perfidy  before  the  war, 
his  avidity  and  cruelty  in  prosecuting  it,  rendered  him  an 
enemy  with   whom  they  could    little  hope,   and  scarcely 
indeed   could   wish,  for  compromise.     To  the  pope   they 
stood  in  a  different  relation  ;  and  they  had  sagncity  enough 
to  perceive,  that  having  once  gained  the  object  for  which 
he  promoted  the  league,  his  interests  must  now   strongly 
prompt  him  to  free  Italy  from  its  invaders.     They  proffered 
therefore  the  surrender  of  Ravenna,  the  only  city   in  Ro- 
magna    which    still    resisted ;     and    the    Doge    Loredano 
announced  his   willingness  to  depute  six   of  the   noblest 
senators,  who  should  humble  themselves  at  the  pontifical 
footstool,  and  implore  absolution  for  their  country.     This 
seasonable  accommodation  to  the  pride,  no  less  than  to  the 
policy,  of  Julius  produced  the  desired  consequence.     To 
withdraw  at  once  from  the  league  would  have  been    too 
open   and   loo   violent    a   breach    of  faith ;   but  the    holy 
father,  after  a  fierce  ebullition  of  his  constitutional  fury, 

N2 


S'Se3B'95SSSSff'|JS|S*5'WfSSP|^^ 


II 


150 


FIDELITY  OF  TREVISO. 


expressed  himself  in  gentler  terms,  sufficiently  evincing 
the  conduct  which  he  would  ultimately  adopt. 

Greater  difficulties  embarrassed  the  negotiation  with  the 
emperor  ;  and  although  it  was  deemed  advisable  to  tender 
him  the  lowliest  submission,  and  to  agree  to  his  retention 
of  every  conquest   which  had  been  made   in    his  name, 
Maximilian   steadily  refused  to  treat  without  the  partici- 
pation of  France.     Nevertheless,  either  from  indolence  or 
poverty,  he  took  no  measure  to  prosecute  with  activity  the 
•war  which  he  had  resolved  to  continue;  and  even  when 
Louis,  satisfied  with  his  glory,  and  having  nothing  more  to 
conquer,  set  out  on  his  return  to  France,  only  one  small 
corps  of  a  few  hundred  imperialists  had  entered  Lombardy, 
to  garrison   the  fortresses   which,  although   surrendered, 
were  as  yet  by  no  means  secured.     Those  troops  sufficed 
for  the  occupation  of  Padua  ;  but  on  the  appearance  of  a 
detachment  before  Treviso,  so  scanty  a  force  excited  con- 
tempt among  the  inhabitants,  who  regarded  the  proposed 
change  of  masters  with  undisguised  reluctance.     The  cry 
of  Marco  was  heard  in  their  streets  ;  the  Venetian  standard 
was  raised  on   their   battlements  ;    the    Germans   hastily 
retired,  and  at  the  moment  in  which  the   whole  of  Terra 
Firma  was  deemed    lost,  this    fidelity  of  the   Trevisians 
revived   the   hope   of  brighter   fortunes,  gave   an    earnest 
of  the   recovery  of  dominion,  nnd    checked   the   hitherto 
retrograde  movement  of  the  Venetian  army.     Petigiiano, 
secure  of  an  advantageous  rallying  point,  once  more  ad- 
vanced, and  took  up  a  strong  position  between  Marghera 
and  Mestrc. 

\  et  more  important  results  were  speedily  produced  by 
this  example  of  constancy/.     The   government  of  Venice 
had  pressed  far  less  heavily  upon  the  Lombard  cities  than 
that  to  which  they  now  found  themselves  subjected,  and  in 
most  of  them  a  strong  party  existed  looking  with  anxiety 
for  the  moment  at  which  they  might  emancipate  themselves 
from  their  recent  fetters.     In  Padua,  the  middle  classes  and 
the  populace,  to  a  man,  were   favourable  to  Venice  :  the 
nobles,  on  the  other  hand,  hoping  to  establish  more  exten- 
sive aristocratical  privileges  and  ampler  feodal  rights  by  the 
assistance  of  the  court  of  Austria,  espoused  the  side  of 
Maximilian  ;  and  their  reasons,  when  once  penetrated,  in- 
creased the  desire  of  the  citizens  to  escape  from  German 


I 


t- 

i  ' 


RECOVERY  OF  PADUA. 


151 


thraldom.  Little  more  than  three  weeks  had  elapsed  since 
the  occupation  of  their  city  by  about  800  imperialists,  when 
the  doge  Loredano  received  intimation  of  the  wishes  of  the 
burghers,  and  was  implored  to  second  them.  At  first  he 
shrank  from  the  peril  of  an  enterprise  so  daring,  and  so 
calculated  to  provoke  greater  activity  on  the  part  of  the 
emperor  ;  but,  stimulated  by  bolder  spirits  in  the  council, 
he  ordered  Andrea  Grilti,  than  whom  no  officer  of  the  re- 
public was  better  calculated  for  the  service,  to  hold  himself 
in  readiness  to  act  in  concert  with  the  Paduans.  Before 
dawn,  on  the  24th  of  July,  400  men-at-arms  and  2000  foot 
placed  themselves  in  ambuscade  within  a  bow-shot  of  the 
city.  It  was  the  season  of  the  second  Italian  hay-harvest, 
and  every  day  a  numerous  train  of  wagons  laden  with  the 
crop  used  to  enter  Padua ;  their  appearance  therefore  on 
the  appointed  morning  did  not  excite  suspicion,  the  draw- 
bridge was  lowered,  and  tlic  convoy  filed  slowly  through 
the  gates.  In  the  rear  of  the  fifth  carriage,  concealed  by 
those  which  preceded  it,  Gritti  had  placed  six  horsemen, 
each  carrying  behind  him  a  foot-soldier  with  his  harquebuse 
loaded.  Not  more  than  thirty  German  lansquenets  senti- 
nelled the  gate  ;  and  as  this  wagon  passed  under  it,  the  men- 
at-arms  raised  the  cry  of  Marco;  their  comrades,  slipping 
from  the  cruppers,  discharged  their  pieces  with  so  sure  an  aim 
that  each  killed  his  man  ;  a  truwipet  sounded  for  the  advance 
of  the  troops  in  imibush ;  and,  roused  by  the  same  signal, 
more  than  2000  of  the  inhabitants,  rudely  armed,  but 
breathing  deadly  enmity  against  the  Germans,  poured 
out  from  their  houses.  The  lonesome  and  widely-dis- 
persed streets  of  Padua  afforded  full  room  for  battle  ;  and 
during  the  two  hours  in  which  it  raged,  the  imperialists 
sold  their  lives  dearly,  and  slew  1500  of  their  opponents, 
before,  overpowered  by  numbers,  they  were  wholly  cut  to 
pieces.* 

The  news  of  the  recovery  of  Padua  was  received  in 
Venice  with  transports  of  joy.  The  day  on  which  that 
great  success  was  obtained,  the  translation  of  Sta.  Marina, 
was  already  celebrated  as  a  feast ;  but  it  was  now  further  . 
ennobled  by  a  decree  instituting  a  yearly  a nda (a  of  the  doge 
and  senate  to  return  thanks  in  the  church  of  that  martyr,  in 

*  Us  fenrent  ouverts,  rompus,  et  tous  mis  en  pieces,  sans  que  jamais 
ea  feust  ua  k  mercy.    Uui  feui  {rrosse  piii^.— Hist,  du  Ch.  Bayard,  tlxx. 


f pgf fS:;*3»;- 


Ifl 


^ 


/ 


152  PREPAIIATIONS  TO  DEFEND  PADUA. 

Which  the  keys  of  the  restored  city  were  solemnly  deposited. 
In  Maximilian,  the  unexpected  intelligence  occasioned  pain 
and  indignation  fully  equal  to  the  delight  of  his  enemies  ; 
he  vowed  deep  revenge,  applied  to  the  King  of  France  for 
the  assistance  of  500  men-at-arms,  and  undertook  in  person 
to  reduce  and  punish  the  revolted  citv.     Louis  willingly 
accorded  the  required  detachment ;  but,  distrusted  by  the 
coldness  hitherto  manifested  by  his  ally,  he  did  not  hesitate 
to  proceed  on  his  own  return  to  France,  after  arranaina  an 
interview   which   Maximilian    purposely   failed   to  "attend. 
1  he  seeds  of  dissension  indeed  were  already  fast  ripening 
among  the  associated  princes,  and  the  bonds  of  their  con- 
federacy became  every  hour  more  weakened  and  relaxed. 

In  order  to  embarrass  the   emperor  while  on  his  march 
the  Venetians,  now  freed  from  the  immediate  presence  of 
the    French,    commenced  a  variety  of  diversions      Their 
galleys  hovered  on  the  coasts  of  Friuli  and  Istria,  menaced 
l-iume  and  Trieste,   and   relieved   Udino.     Advanced  de- 
tachments skirmished  on  the  frontier  line,  and  a  bold  coup 
de  main  by  night  surprised  the  Marquis  of  Mantua  ncrlf. 
gently  posted  in  the  Lwla  ddla  Scahi  on  the  Tanaro.     The 
prince  leaped  from  the  window  of  his  quarters  in  his  shirt 
and  concealed  himself  in  a  stack  of  grain  near  at  hand  ; 
but  his  hiding  place  was  discovered  and  revealed  by  some 
pe^asants,  whose  fidelity  was  proof  against  the  huae  bribes 
which  he  offered  for  secrecy.     He  was  conveved  to" Venice 
and  retained  in  close  but  honourable  confinement  in  a  tower 
of  the  palace. 

Notwithstanding   these   partial  successes,  it  was  soon 
perceived  that  it  would  be  impossible  to  prevent  the  invest- 
ment of  Padua,  and   the  signory  therefore  prepared  most 
vigorously  for  its  defence.     Upon  its  preservation  appeared 
to  depend    the  fate  of  Venice   herself;    and    accordin<rly 
neither  skill  nor  toil  was  omitted  to  render  it  impregnable. 
Petighano   and   Gritti   entered  it  with   the   whole^armv 
amounting  to  nearly  25,000  men,  part  regulars,  part  Slradil 
otli,  and  part  Scappoli,  Sclavonians  taken  from  the  galleys 
an    active  though    somewhat    undisciplined    body.       The 
doge  Loredano,  in  order  to  manifest  the  high  value  which 
he  placed  upon    the   safety  of  this  great  outwork  of  his 
capital,  and  to  mark  the  identification  of  his  own  personal 
interests  with  those  of  his  country,  sent  his  two  sons,  with 


I 


f 


SIEGE  OF  PADUA. 


153 


a  body-guard  of  100  picked  men,  to  partake  the  dangers  of 
the  garrison  ;  and  three  hundred  patricians,  each  accom- 
panied by  a  brilliant  suite,  enrolled  themselves  as  volun- 
teers in  the  like  service.  AH  the  approaches  to  the  city 
were  undermined ;  new  bastions  strengthened  the  long 
line  of  curtain  ;  the  ramparts  groaned  with  artillery  con- 
veyed from  Venice  ;  inner  batteries  and  a  second  fosse 
were  constructed  ;  every  hut  and  tree  within  a  mile  of  the 
walls  which  might  aflord  lodgment  to  an  enemy  was  swept 
away  ;  the  neighbouring  peasants  eagerly  flocked  from  their 
villages  to  relieve  the  soldiery  in  tlieir  labours;  and  the 
generals,  having  erected  an  altar  in  the  great  Piazza  di 
Sa7i  Antonio^  after  the  celebration  of  mass  harangued  the 
garrison  and  inhabitants,  and  received  fresh  oaths  of  fidelity 
and  renewed  assurances  that  they  would  maintain  the  city 
or  perish  under  its  ruins. 

The  march  of  the  emperor  was  retarded  by  the  difficulty 
of  transporting  his  park  of  artillery,  the  greatest  ever  yet 
prepared  since  the  invention  of  ordnance.  Two  hundred 
heavy  cannon,  and  many  bombards  whose  enormous  size 
forbade  the  use  of  carriages,  and  which  could  be  discharged 
at  the  utmost  but  four  times  a  day,  were  destined  for  this 
siego  ;  and  not  more  than  half  of  them  could  be  brought  up 
at  a  time,  on  account  of  the  deficiency  of  horses.  At 
length,  on  the  15th  of  September,  a  host  sat  down  under 
Padua,  which,  both  from  its  great  numbers  and  its  variety 
of  tongues,  reminds  us  of  that  with  which  King  Agramante 
and  his  paynims  beleaguered  Paris,  for  the  love  of  An- 
gelica, and  to  avenge  the  death  of  Troiano.  Maximilian 
arrived  on  the  plain,  says  Bayard's  chronicler,  in  the  true 
guise  of  an  emperor,  and  if  the  mighty  company  which  he 
brought  with  him  would  but  have  pertormed  its  duty,  surely 
it  was  enough  for  the  conquest  of  the  world.  Among  the 
Germans  there  were  of  dukes,  counts,  marquises,  princes, 
and  lords,  120,  and  about  12,000  cavalry;  of  men-at-arms 
of  Burgundy  and  Hainault  five  or  six  hundred  ;  the  lans- 
quenets' were  without  number;  12,000  Germans,  6000 
Spaniards,  an  equal  number  of  adventurers  from  different 
countries,  and  2000  Ferrarese  ;  probably  all  together  more 
than  50,000  fighting  men  ;  the  Cardinal  of  Ferrara  was  de- 
puled,  by  his  brother  the  duke  with  120  lances,  3000  in- 
fantry, and  twelve  pieces  of  artillery ;  the  Cardinal  of  Man- 


^ 


154 


EXPLOITS  OF  THE  STRADIOTTI. 


I 


1: 


tua  led  a  somewhat  larger  force;    and  the  500  French 
kni^rhts  under  the  Seigneur  de  la  Palisse  comprised  among 
them  Ba>ard  and  many  of  his  most  celebrated  companions. 
On  the  whole,  not  fewer  than  100,000  combatants  spread 
themselves  chiefly  under  the  northern  walls,  in  a  semicircle 
of  nearly  four  miles  in  length,  from  the  gate  of  Sta.  Croce 
to  that  of  Coda  lunga.     Maximilian,  as  if  he  had  cast  his 
slough  of  indolence  and  become  endowed  with  a  new  spirit 
by  the  magniiicence  of  the  scene,  fixed  his  head-quarters  at 
a  Carthusian  monastery,  Sta.  Elena,  within  half  cannon- 
shot  of  the  ramparts.     There   he  exhibited  distinguished 
personal  bravery,  mingled  with  the  engineers,  animated 
their  labours,  and  so  al)ly  and   actively  conducted  his  pre- 
parations that  within  five  days  the  batteries  wore  opened. 
During  their  construction  an  attempt  to  turn  the  course  of 
the  Brenta  failed,  from  an  inaccuracy  in  the  levels. 

No  sooner  had  the  firing  in  breach  commenced,  than  an 
attack  was  directed,  by  the  French  and  a  detachment  of 
Germans,  on  a  ravelin   near  the  gate  Portello,  which  leads 
to  Venice  ;  not  so  much,  as  we   are   told,  for  any  serious 
object  as  to  make  essay  of  the  enemy's  inclination  to  fight ; 
and  of  that  intention  the  assailants  received  sufficient  as- 
surance to  induce   them  to  retire  to  their  quarters  in  no 
small  haste.*     ]n  that  affair  Bayard  greatly  distinguished 
hunself ;  penetrating  four  barriers,  raised  at  one  hundred 
paces  from  each  other,  and  which  could  be  carried  only  by 
an  attack  in  front,  where  the  narrow  approach,  diked  on 
each  side,  was  swept  by  a  long  range  of  artillery.     The  last 
of  these  barriers  was  distant  but  a  stone's   throw  from  the 
gate  ;  and  it  was  so  fiercely  contested  that  the  brave  knight 
was  obliged  to  leap  from  his  horse  and  rush  on,  sword  in 
hand,   "  as  a  lioness  who    has   been  robbed  of  her  cubs 
springs  with   her  mates  to  their  deliverance."     Satisfied 
with  this  display  of  prowess,  he  then  advised  a  return. t 

Bayard's  other  personal  encounters  during  this  siege 
were  of  an  equally  chivalrous  and  romantic  character  *vith 
his  first  adventure  ;  but  they  chiefly  occurred  with  the 
Slradwth,  whose  rapid  war  of  partisanship  was  incalculably 
useful  to  the  garrison.  Every  day  they  penetrated  the 
hostile  lines,  carrying  off  booty  and  prisoners,  foraged  the 

*  Senza  molta  delatione.— Guicc.  lib.  vUi.  vol.  ii.  p.  246. 
t  Hist.  du  Ch.  Bayard,  xxxiu. 


/ 


GALLANTRY  OF  THE  YOUNG  BOUTIERES.       155 

neighbouring  districts,  or  eluding  superior  numbers,  secured 
the  entrance  of  convoys  to  the  city.  On  one  occasion, 
when  the  military  pay  was  in  arrear,  and  a  remittance  was 
expected  from  Venice,  300  of  these  light  horsemen  stealthily 
gained  the  mouth  of  the  Brenta,  and  disembarking  the 
treasure,  divided  it  among  such  of  their  number  as  were 
most  fleetly  mounted.  Then,  having  laden  two  strong 
mules  with  heavy  sandbags,  they  placed  them  in  the  centre 
of  their  march,  .and  on  the  appearance  of  a  patrol  of  Ger- 
mans alfected  to  guard  them  with  peculiar  anxiety.  The 
result  answered  their  expectation  ;  while  the  enemy  eagerly 
attacked  the  mules,  the  troopers  who  really  carried  the 
money  rode  oflf  at  full  speed  unregarded,  and  outstripped 
pursuit  before  the  stratagem  was  discovered. 

Not  all  the  Stradiotfi,  however,  were  equally  fortunate ; 
for  soon  afterward  Bayard  brought  into  the  camp  nearly 
sixty  of  their  troop,  after  a  rencounter,  in  which  one  of  his 
suite  gained  much  deserved  reputation.  A  young  gentle- 
man of  Dauphiny,  a  son  of  the  Lortl  of  Boutieres,  although 
not  quite  seventeen  years  of  age,  yet  coming  of  a  noble 
stock,  and  having  great  desire  to  tread  in  the  steps  of  his 
ancestors,  in  a  charge  upon  a  company  of  Venetian  cross- 
bowmen,  threw  himself  upon  their  standard-bearer,  who  was 
entangled  in  a  ditch,  and  took  him  prisoner,  notwithstand- 
ing he  was  twice  his  own  age  and  size.  On  carrying  this 
notable  prize  before  his  master.  Bayard,  with  some  surprise, 
asked  if  the  prisoner  were  really  of  his  own  taking  ?  "  In 
good  sooth,  my  lord,  he  is,"  replied  the  youth,  to  the  great 
entertainment  of  the  chevalier ;  "  and,  please  God,  he  did 
right  well  to  surrender,  or  I  should  certainly  have  killed 
him." — "This  young  gentleman,"  rejoined  the  knight, 
turning  to  some  Venetian  captains  whom  he  himself  had 
taken,  and  whom  he  was  entertaining  at  table  with  his 
usual  courtesy,  "  has  been  my  page  but  six  days,  and  as 
yet,  you  may  perceive,  has  but  little  beard  :  in  France,  we 
do  not  trust  our  standards  unless  to  hands  which  can  de- 
fend them."  The  ancient,  abashed  at  the  obvious  deduc- 
tion from  these  words  so  unfavourable  to  his  courage, 
swore  roundly  that  he  had  not  surrendered  from  any  fear 
of  his  captor,  who,  single-handed,  never  could  have  taken 
him  ;  but  that  it  was  impossible  for  any  man  by  himself  to 
fight  against  a  host.     "  Do  you  hear  that,  little  Boutieres," 


U 


'4 


■  ■  1 


»l 


I 


.ffSlpgPJ 


-^^^fpe=3^^- 


MP 


It 


* 


\ 


156 


THE    BREACH. 


said  Bayard,  "  your  prisoner  says  you  are  not  the  man  to 
take  him  !" — "Will  my  lord  grant  me  but  one  favour]'* 
asked  the  gallant  and  high-mettled  youth. — "  Name  it,"  re- 
plied Bayard. — "  That  I  may  return  the  prisoner  his  horse 
and  arms,  and  after  I  have  mounted  on  my  own,  that  we  may 
step  a  little  aside  :  then,  if  I  take  him  again,  before  God,  he 
shall  die  ;  but  if  he  can  escape,  he  shall  go  ransomlcss." 
Bayard  was  never  better  pleased  than  with  this  spirited 
demand,  and  joyously  accorded  the  desired  permission. 
Not  so,  however,  the  braggart  Venetian,  and  no  one  need 
inquire  whether  ho  was  the  laughing-stock  of  the  camp 
when  he  declined  the  challenge  which  Boutieres  thus  freely 
offered.* 

The  artillery  of  the  garrison  was  better  served  than  that 
of  the  besiegers,  "  for  one  shot  which  we  gave  them,  they 
returned  us  two  ;"  nevertheless,  in  four  days  20,000  rounds 
were  discharged  from  the  German  batteries.  Under  that 
most  terrific  fire,  three  breaches  were  speedily  laid  into  one, 
of  four  or  five  hundred  paces  in  breadth,  and  capable  of  ad- 
mitting 1000  men  abreast ;  "  was  not  this  a  goodly  passage 
for  an  assault?"  But  in  the  rear  of  that  enormous  gap, 
Petigliano  had  sunk  a  fosse  twenty  feet  wide  and  deep, 
filled  almost  to  the  brink  with  barrels  of  powder  inter- 
mixed with  fascines  ;  enfiladed  by  flanking  batteries,  as 
well  as  by  others,  which  presented  a  murderous  line  against 
an  advance  in  front ;  and  having  beyond  it,  within  the 
town,  an  esplanade  of  sufficient  size  for  the  battle  array  of 
20,000  men.  The  French  were  warned  of  these  formidable 
defences  by  some  of  their  own  company  who  had  been 
taken  prisoners  ;  and  to  whom,  before  they  were  ransomed, 
the  works  were  exhibited,  with  expressions  savouring  of 
contempt  of  the  Germans,  and  admiration  of  themselves. 


"  Were   it   not   for 


your  men-at-arms,"  said  Petigliano, 


*'  in  four-and-twenty  hours  I  would  make  a  sortie  which 
should  oblige  the  emperor  to  raise  the  siege  with  igno- 
miny." 

Maximilian,  no  doubt,  was  deterred  from  attempting  a 
storm  by  intelligence  of  these  preparations,  which  made 
the  breach,  however  large,  utterly  impracticable  ;  for  on  the 
tenth  morning,  when  the  army  was  marshalled  and  awaited 

*  Hist,  du  Ch.  Bayard,  xjrxv. 


f 


'  I 


i 


) 


THE  EMPEROR  PROPOSES  AN  ASSAULT. 


157 


the  signal  for  advance,  it  was  again  dismissed  to  its  quarters, 
on  a  plea  that  the  ditches  had  been  filled  during  the  night, 
and  could  not  be  passed.  The  water,  however,  subsided  by 
the  next  day  ;  yet  even  then  no  attempt  was  made  beyond 
the  attack  of  an  outwork,  hastily  thrown  up  as  a  defence 
for  the  Coda  lunga  gate ;  from  which  the  besiegers  were 
repulsed.  Part  of  the  bastion  Delia  Gatta,  near  this  out- 
work, being  subsequently  battered  down,  it  was  assaulted 
two  days  afterward  by  the  Spanish  and  German  infantry, 
who  fought  with  incredible  fury,  scaled  the  wall  after  inli- 
nite  loss,  and  succeeded  in  mounting  two  standards  on  the 
breastwork.  The  explosion  of  a  mine,  however,  destroyed 
them  almost  to  a  man ;  and  the  few  survivors,  grievously 
hurt  and  wounded,  sought  refuge  in  their  own  lines,  where 
their  comrades  were  waitinor  but  for  their  establishment  on 
the  bastion  to  commence  a  general  assault.  But  all  hope  of 
immediate  success  was  abandoned  on  this  discomfiture,  and 
the  troops  again  returned  to  their  quarters. 

The  sole  remaimno;  occurrence  in  this  remarkable  sietje 
is  in  all  points  so  strongly  tinctured  with  the  manners  of  the 
age  to  which  it  belongs, — so  strikingly  displays  the  inade- 
quacy of  any  force,  however  numerous  and  well  appointed, 
unless  it  be  controlled  also  by  a  strict  discipline  and  subor- 
dination,— and  so  vividly  illustrates  the  fanciful  distinctions 
of  rank  and  the  punctilioes  of  conventional  honour  which 
were  still  fondly  nursed  by  chivalry,  even  in  those  days  of 
its  fast  approaching  decline, — that  we  shall  relate  it  for  the 
most  part  in  the  appropriate  words  of  the  biographer  of  the 
knight  sans  pcur  d  sans  rcproche.  The  emperor  with  his 
German  princes  and  barons,  having  one  morning  reconnoi- 
tred the  huge  breach,  now  exposing  the  city  for  nearly  half 
a  mile,  marvelled  greatly,  and  felt  no  small  shame,  that,  not- 
withstanding his  mighty  host,  he  was  still  baflled.  Retiring 
therefore  to  his  tent,  he  dictated  a  despatch  for  the  Lord  of 
Palisse  conceived  in  the  following  terms.  "  My  cousin, — 
Having  found  the  breach  which  I  have  just  reconnoitred 
more  than  reasonably  large  for  those  who  will  do  their  duty, 
I  propose  to  storm  it  this  very  day  :  I  pray  you,  therefore, 
that  so  soon  as  my  great  drum  shall  sound,  which  will  be 
about  noon,  you  will  hold  in  readiness  all  those  French 
gentlemen  who,  by  the  commandment  of  the  King  of 
France,  my  brother,  are  at  my  service  under  your  orders,  to 

Vol.  II.— 0 


i^ 


kS 


m 


158 


REPLY  OF  THE  FRENCH  CAPTAINS 


TO  Maximilian's  invitation. 


159 


i 


B-i 


accompany  my  infantry  to  the  assault,  which  I  trust,  through 
God's  aid,  will  succeed."     The  Lord  of  Palisse,  on  receiv- 
ing this  despatch,  found  the  method  of  proceeding  strange 
enough  ;  nevertheless  he  dissembled,  and  summoned  all  his 
captains  to  his  quarters.     On  their  arrival,  he  said,  "  Gen- 
tlemen, we  must  go  to  dinner,  for  I  have  that  to  tell  which 
if  I  name  it  beforehand  peradventure  may  spoil  your  cheer." 
But  this  he  snid  right  merrily,  for  he  well  knew  the  temper 
of  his  companions,  that  there  was  not  one   among  them 
other  than  a  Hector  or  an  Orlando  ;*  and  especially  that 
good  knight  who  never  in  his  life  was  surprised  by  any 
thing  which  he  either  saw  or  heard.     Nevertheless,  during 
dinner  they  did  little  else  hut  look  at  one  another.     After 
the  repast  was  ended  and  the  quarters  were  cleared  of  all 
except  the  captains,  the  Lord  of  Palisse  communicated  to 
them  the  emperor's  despatch,  which  he  read  twice  for  their 
better  understanding.     When  it  had  been  thus  read,  each 
knight  regarded  the  other  with  a  smile,  to  see  who  should 
first  begin  to  speak  ;  till  the  Lord  of  Humbercourt,  address- 
ing himself  to  La  Palisse,  said,  "  Monseigneur,  you  may 
send  word  to  the  emperor  that  wc  are  quite  ready  ;  since, 
for  my  part,  I  am  tired  of  lying  in  the  field  now  the  nights 
begin  to  grow  cold,  and  moreover  our  good  wine  is  failino- 
us."     At  which  sally  they  all  laughed,  and  every  knight 
spake  in  his  turn  and  agreed  with  the  Lord  of  Humber- 
court. 

La  Palisse,  in  the  end,  turning  to  the  Chevalier  Bayard, 
who  had  not  as  yet  opened  his  lips  in  anywise,  perceived 
that  he  was  picking  his  teeth,  and  made  as  if  he  did  not 
understand  the  proposition  of  his  comrades,  so  he  addressed 
him  thus  :  "  Well  now,  you  Hercules  of  France,  and  what 
say  you  1  this  is  no  fit  time  to  be  picking  your  teeth,  for  we 
must  send  a  prompt  answer  to  the  emperor."  The  good 
knight,  who  loved  a  merry  jest,  returned  pleasantly,  "  Sirs, 
if  we  were  indeed  to  follow  the  Lord  of  Humbercourt  in  all 
seriousness,  we  should  go  this  moment  to  the  breach  :  but 
as  marching  on  foot  is  a  somewhat  troublesome  pastime  to 
a  man-at-arms,  I,  for  one,  should  willingly  excuse  myself. 

*  A  favourite  mode  of  expression  used  not  long  after  by  the  Macaronic 
writer  Merlino  Coccaio. 

Quo  nan  Hectorior,  quo  non  Orlavdior  alter. 


■i 
f 


Nevertheless,  since  I  must  speak  my  opinion,  I  will  deliver 
it  at  once,  and  openly.  The  emperor  in  his  despatch  re- 
quires that  you  should  dismount  all  the  French  gentlemen 
to  go  to  the  assault  with  his  lansquenets.  Now,  for  my- 
self, little  as  I  have  of  this  world's  goods,  I  have  always 
borne  myself  as  a  true  gentleman,  and  all  of  yon,  my  lords, 
have  large  possessions  and  come  of  great  houses,  and  so 
do  many  others  of  our  men-at-arms.  Can  the  emperor 
then  think  it  reasonable  to  put  so  much  nobility  in  peril 
side  by  side  with  his  infantry  ;  of  whom  one  is  a  cobbler, 
another  a  farrier,  a  third  a  baker,  and  every  one  some  sort 
of  mechanic,  who  has  not  his  honour  by  any  means  in  so 
great  esteem  as  the  poorest  gentleman  ?  such  a  step,  saving 
the  emperor's  grace,  is  taken  with  too  little  reflection.  My 
advice  therefore  is,  that  the  Lord  of  Palisse  should  send 
this  answer,  that  he  has  assj-mbled  his  captains  according 
to  his  imperial  majesty's  will,  who  are  all  well  resolved  to 
obey  his  majesty's  order,  according  to  the  charge  which 
they  have  received  from  the  king  their  master.  But 
that  his  imperial  majesty  must  be  well  acquainted  that  the 
King  of  France  has  none  excepting  gentlemen  in  his  com- 
panies of  ordonnance,*  and  that  to  mix  such  persons  of 
honour  with  foot-soldiers,  who  are  men  of  low  condition, 
would  be  to  show  little  esteem  for  noble  birth.  Neverthe- 
less, if  his  majesty  will  please  to  dismount  some  of  his  own 
German  counts,  barons,  and  gentlemen,  together  with  the 
gentlemen  of  France,  the  latter  will  readily  show  them  the 
way,  and  the  lansquenets  may  then  follow  if  they  think 
good." 

This  reply  was  communicated  to  the  emperor,  by  whom 
it  was  approved,  and  immediately  assembling  by  sound  of 
drum  and  trumpet  the  princes,  lords,  and  captains  of  Ger- 

*  The  r.omnaisnic^  d'nrdnnnavre  were  established  by  Charles  Vll.  in 
1444,  and  constituted  the  stHnding  army  of  France.  A  <r'Hf I f-nmn,  in 
the  acceptation  of  the  Frencli  in  the  sixteenth  century,  was  not  only 
one  born  of  noble  lineage,  but  even  a  /•(  tun,-,-  of  the  tiirn  etnf,  who 
rnadeanns  his  sole  profession  ;  and,  by  so  doinp,  differed  from  the  Inns- 
queni'ta  or  fiintasshK,  wtio.  enrollin<;  tiniiiis-lves  but  for  a  season, 
returned  to  their  trades,  as  Bavanl  states  above,  at  the  end  of  a  cam- 
paign. Dubos  has  a  valuable  Preliminary  Dissertation  to  his  Hist,  da 
III  J.iiTnt:  lie  Cambrui,  on  tlie  ujilitary  establishments  at  the  commence- 
ment of  the  sixteenth  century,  in  which  these  distinctions  are  well 
explained. 


^,[ 


160 


MAXIMILIAN  RAISES    THE    SIEGE. 


DEATH   OF    PETIGLIANO. 


161 


many,  Burgundy,  and  Hainault,  he  announced  to  them  his 
pleasure.  When  he  had  finished  speaking,  a  very  marvel- 
lous and  strange  noise  arose  on  a  sudden  among  the  Ger- 
mans, which  endured  for  the  space  of  half  an  hour  before 
it  was  appeased ;  and  then  one  of  their  company  was  de- 
puted to  acquaint  the  emperor  that  they  were  not  persons 
who  would  demean  themselves  by  marching  on  foot,  nor  by 
entering  a  breach  ;  and  that  their  true  estate  was  to  fight 
like  gentlemen  on  horseback  :  and  no  other  answer  could 
the  emperor  obtain.  Great  was  his  displeasure  thereat ; 
nevertheless  he  replied  only  by  saying,  "  Well  then,  gentle- 
men, we  must  do  for  the  best ;"  nnd  forthwith  he  sent  to 
the  Lord  of  Palisse,  countermanding  the  assault  for  that 
day.  Then  shutting  himself  up  in  his  quarters,  deeply 
mortified  and  indignant,  he  took  horse  on  the  following 
morning  two  hours  before  daybreak  ;  and  accompanied  by 
only  five  or  six  of  his  most  confidential  attendants,  he  rode 
forty  miles  from  the  camp  without  drawing  bit ;  and  des- 
patched immediate  orders  for  raising  the  siege  after  fifteen 
days'  investment.*  The  Venetians,  justly  proud  of  their 
successful  defence,  affirmed  that  to  narrate  with  adequate 
eloquence  this  preservation  of  his  native  city,  would  re- 
quire the  resurrection  of  Livy  himself.  The  eflfect  pro- 
duced by  the  abandonment  of  the  enterprise  was,  as  we 
shall  perceive,  most  important  to  the  fortunes  of  the 
republic. 

♦  Hist,  du  Ch.  Bayard,  xxxvii.  xxxviii. 


i 


CHAPTER  XVI. 

PROM  A.  D.   1509  TO  A.  D.   1516. 

Reconciliation  with  Julius  II.— Tlaranirue  of  Louis  Il.'lian  at  the  Diet 
of  the  Empire-Campaigns  of  1510  and  1511 -The  Holy  League— 
Gaston  de  Foix  commands  the  French— Slorm  of  Brescia-  Generosity 
of  Bayard— Battle  of  Ravenna— Alliance  between  Venice  and  France 
—Accession  of  I.eo  X.— Battle  of  Novarra— Battle  of  Moita— Acces- 
sion of  Francis  I.  — Battle  of  Marigiiano— Death  of  d'Alviano— Treaty 
of  Noyon,  and  Conclusion  of  the  Wars  arising  out  of  the  League  of 
Cambrai. 


DOGE. 
Leonardo  Loredano. 


It  is  probable  that  during  the  inglorious  operations  which 
we  have  just  related,  Maximilian  was  betrayed  both  by  Ju- 
lius and  Ferdinand  ;  each  of  whom,  already  determined  upon 
reconciliation,  if  not  secretly  in  accordance  with  Venice, 
may  have  ordered  his  generals  to  co-operate  but  languidly 
with  the  army  of  the  league.  Be  this  as  it  may,  the  em- 
peror, once  more  impoverished  and  dishonoured,  returned 
to  his  own  dominions  ;  his  troops  broke  up  and  dispersed  ; 
Padua  was  delivered ;  the  Venetians,  sprea<ling,  without 
resistance,  over  the  adjoining  districts,  recovered  many  of 
their  former  possessions  ;  refused  a  truce  which  Maximilian 
was  sutFiciently  humbled  to  propose ;  and  before  he  had 
reached  Trent,  on  his  route  to  Germany,  had  established 
themselves  under  the  walls  of  Verona. 

The  death  of  the  Gount  di  Petigliano,  which  occurred  in 
t^e  beginning  of  1510,*  was  a  disaster  felt,  perhaps,     ^   ^ 
more  acutely  by  the  signory  than  even  the  total  de-    j^'^q* 
feat  of  their  flotilla  by  the   Duke  of  Ferrara  not 

*  Rembo,  x.  p.  355,  states  that  he  died  on  the  26th  Jan.  1510.  Cuic- 
ckrdini,  lib.  x.  vol.  ii.  p.  240,  places  his  decease  before  the  close  of  1509. 
Tlie  former  is  most  probably  corret't. 

02 


162 


GONZAGA  OBTAINS    HIS   FREEDOM. 


many  weeks  before.*     The  rare  fidelity  and  great  military 
experience  of  Petigliano  were  qualities  not  easily  to  be  re- 
placed, and  he  was   gifted  with   yet  another  excellence 
which  rendered  him  peculiarly  acceptable  to  the  habits  of 
the  Venetian  government, — a  calm  and  deliberate  judg- 
ment, never  seduced  by  a  passion  for  glory  into  any  rash 
enterprise,  and  willingly  abandoning  the  chance  of  success 
if  it  were  to  be  obtained  only  by  an  equal  hazard  of  disas- 
ter.    It  might  have  been  supposed  that  Venice  would  select 
a  general-in-chief  from  among  the  numerous  brave  officers 
already  in  her  service  ;  but  the  temper  of  the  condottieri 
was  too  jealous  to  allow  a  hope  of  subordination,  if  any  in- 
dividual of  their  own  number,  unless  distinguished  by  the 
accident  of  birth,  were  elevated  above  his  fellows.     Thus, 
through  one  of  those  remarkable  contradictions  of  ordinary 
and  established  politics  which  the  Italian  annals  so  fre- 
quently present,  it  was  from  their  prisons  that  the  signory 
now  sought  a  commander.     The  high  post  of  chief  of  their 
armies,  which  he  had  filled,  not  wholly  without  suspicion,  a 
few  years    before,  was  again  tendered  to  Francesco  of 
Mantua,  and  joyfully  accepted  by  him,  without  a  moment's 
scruple  as  to  the  solemn  engagements  to  the  violation  of 
which  such  an  appointment  must  necessarily  lead.     His 
fidelity  was  to  be  guarantied  by  the  delivery  of  his  son  as 
hostage  ;  but  whether  from  a  reasonable  mistrust  of  her 
lord's  constancy,  from  maternal  fondness,  or  from  an  ap- 
prehension of  exposing  Mantua  to  the  resentment  of  France, 
Gonzaga's  consort,  when  applied  to  for  ratification,  refused 
the  desired  pledge,  and  the  prince  was  remanded  to  con- 
finement.    Before  the  close  of  the  year,  however,  by  a  sin- 
gular concurrence  of  opposite  interests,  the  menaces  of  the 
Turkish  sultan,  with  whom  he  had  always  maintained  an 
amicable  correspondence,  and  the  solicitations  of  the  head 
of  the  Christian  church,  to  whose  policy  his  release  was  ad- 
vantageous, obtained  freedom  for  Gonzaga. 

Disappointed  in  their  first  application,  the  signory  next 
wished  to  nominate  Andrea  Gritti  to  the  important  vacant 

*  This  victory  of  Alfonso,  and  his  brother  the  Cardinal  Ippolito.  at 
1  olesina,  is,  more  than  once,  a  ihenie  of  praise  In  the  hands  of  Ariosto, 
(HI.  57.  xx.xvi.  ad  in.  xl.  ad  mit.)  The  last-mentioned  passage  disprovee 
a  belief  which  has  sometimes  been  euteriaiiied,  that  the  poei  himself  was 
present  at  the  action. 


n 


RECONCILIATION   WITH   JULIUS   11. 


163 


i 


n 


office ;  and  if  that  great  man  had  accepted  the  charge,  the 
armies  of  Venice  would  have  been  led  to  the  field,  for  the 
second  time  in  her  history,  by  a  native  general.  But  even 
the  proud  distinction  of  ranking  by  the  side  of  Carlo  Zeno, 
the  most  illustrious  of  his  countrymen,  failed  to  seduce  the 
honest  judgment  and  the  sure-sighted  wisdom  of  Gritti. 
He  pleaded  inexperience  in  military  affairs  unless  as  a 
prooveditore ;  and  pointing  to  the  more  than  ordinary  dan- 
gers in  which  his  country  was  involved,  he  earnestly  be- 
sought the  signory  to  look  around  for  surer  guidance. 
Compelled  by  this  refusal  to  select  from  the  mass,  they  ulti- 
mately intrusted  the  command  of  their  army,  now  too 
weak  for  more  than  defensive  war,  to  Paolo  Baglione,  an 
ofiScer  not  long  before  engaged  under  the  papal  banners. 

This  transition  from  one  service  to  another  directly  hos- 
tile to  it  was  by  no  means  uncommon  in  Italian  military 
history ;  and  in  the  instance  mentioned  above,  the  recon- 
ciliation of  Julius  to  Venice  removed  all  appearance  of  in- 
consistency. More  than  ever  alarmed  by  the  increasing 
influence  of  the  French  within  the  Alps,  to  which  the 
failure  of  Maximilian  before  Padua  had  largely  contributed, 
the  pope  resolved  no  longer  to  support  the  impolitic  league 
to  which  his  passion  had  given  birth.  Nevertheless,  while 
receiving  the  Venetians  once  again  into  communion  with 
the  church,  he  rigidly  exacted  most  of  those  penalties 
which  the  power  of  the  keys  enabled  him  to  demand. 
Their  deputation  of  nobles,  instead  of  displaying  customary 
liiplomatic  pomp,  entered  Kome  by  night,  clad  in  peniten- 
tial garb;*  testified  their  contrition  in  the  seven  hasiUca ; 
and  humbled  themselves  upon  their  knees,  while  suppli- 
cating absolution,  before  the  papal  throne,  ostentatiously 
raised  in  front  of  the  brazen  portals  of  the  V^atican.  It  was 
esteemed  rio  ordinary  condonation  that  the  stripes  were  re- 
mitted which  it  was  sometimes  customary  for  the  pope  and 
cardinals  to  inflict ;  and  the  master  of  "the  ceremonies,  to 
whose  official  care  was  intrusted  the  arrangement  of  this 
spectacle,  strenuously  insisted  upon  the  necessity  of  adhering 
to  that  edifying  custom.     Among  other  precedents,  he  cited 

•  *  Erano  entrati  con  abiti  e  con  modi  raiserabili  i  sei  oratori  del  senato 
Veneziann,  i  quali  essendo  cnnsneti  a  enirarvi  con  pompa  e  fasto  gran- 
dissimo.— Guicciardiai,  lib.  viii.  vol.  ii.  p.  232. 


'I:' 


hu.  «m   ■'^  .  I  ^eKi 


Jh.'ffia£&Ap=^'^'>*^- 


164  PENANCE  OF  THE  VENETIAN  AMBASSADORS. 

that  of  Innocent  VIII.,  who,  having  summoned  before  him 
the  goiifaloniere  and  one  of  the  ancients  of  Bologna,  for 
hanging  a  priest  and  a  Franciscan  in  the  streets  of  their 
city,  stripped  them  naked  to  their  very  drawers,  and  flogged 
them  with  unsparing  severity,  not  only  by  his  own  hands, 
but  by  those  also  of  numerous  assistants,  during  the  recital 
of  no  less  than  three  out  of  the  seven  penitential  psalms. 
Alexander  VI.,  yet  more  recent!)-,  had  exercised  a  nearly 
similar  vengeance  on  some  refractory  Asculans ;  and  the 
pontifical  arbiter  elegavliarum,  confiding  on  those  sound  au- 
thorities, recommended  that  the  cardinal  penitentiary  should 
deliver  thirteen  rods,  one  to  each  of  his  officiating  brother 
cardinals ;  and  the  last,  more  handsomely  finished  than  the 
rest,  and  distinguished  by  a  napkin  at  the  handle,  for  the 
pope's  own  use.     With  these  scourges,  a  slight  blow  was 
to  be  inflicted  on  the  shoulders  of  the  envoy's   during  the 
recital  of  each  verse  of  the  Miserere*     Julius,  however, 
had  good  taste  enough  to  remit  this  unseemly  degradation ; 
and  the  idle  submissions  which  he  really  exacted,  however 
galling  to  the  pride,  by  no  means  diminished  the  power  of 
Venice.     But  it  must  have  been  with  no  slight  regret  that 
she  consented,  for  a  while,  to  permit  the  exercise  of  uncon- 
trolled ecclesiastical  jurisdiction  within  her  dominions  ;  and 
to  concede  free  navigation  of  the  Adriatic  to  natives  of  the 
ecclesiastical  states,  without  demanding  toll,  or  assertino- 
any  right  of  search.     The  renewal  of  good-will  thus  effected 
is  partly  attributable  to  Henry  VIII.  of  England,  whose 
martial  spirit  and  abundant  treasure  rendered'  him  a  most 
important  advocate.     At  Easter,  in  this  year,  he  received 
from  Julius  the  consecrated  golden  rose,  annually  bestowed 
upon  some  one  sovereign  as  the  highest  token  of  pontifical 
favour ;  and  it  is  recorded  that  before  the  presentation  of 
that  special  mark  of  grace  and  amity,  Christopher  Bam- 

*  The  formulary  drawn  up  by  Do  Grassis,  is  prinfed  at  length  in  the 
fnnal  Eccl.  of  Raynaldus,  cul  nnn.  1510.  Of  the  Bolofrnese  he  says 
tHal  ihoy  were  ordered  "  per  pttnitentiarios  oniiies  acriter  percuti,  et 
quirteni  totaliter  luidos,  etiain  sine  calisiis,  sed  solis  campestribus  sive 
bracms,  et  quidem  percuti  fecit  donee  tres  ex  septem  Psalmis  pceniten- 
tialibus  du-ereniur."  The  pope's  rod  is  described  as  virga  una  pidcnor 
pro  Fontijirc.  cvm  manuter^io  in  ex'rnnitate.  We  are  not  certain  that 
\ve  nave  rendered  manutergium  rorrectlv,  hut  we  know  not  what  else 
to  substitute.  Was  the  punishnnent  so  bloodv  that  it  was  necessary  for 
the  holy  executioner  to  wipe  his  hands  during  its  infliction  ] 


INVECTIVE    OF    LOUIS    HELIAN. 


165 


f 


i 


I 


/ 


4 


bridge,  Archbishop  of  York,  the  English  ambassador  at  the 
Vatican,  very  strongly  urged  the  holy  father  net  to  war 
against  Venice,  a  state  which,  if  it  did  not  exist,  ought,  he 
said,  to  be  created  by  the  common  consent  of  mankind,  for 
the  welfare  and  the  glory  of  the  universe.* 

Of  the  bitter  feelings  still  entertained  against  Venice, 
however,  by  the  two  chief  powers  associated^ in  the  league 
of  Cambrai,  a  very  remarkable  evidence  is  preserved  in  a 
speech  pronounced  by  the  French  ambassador,  Louis  Helian, 
at  the  opening  of  a  "diet  of  the  empire,  convened  by  Maxi- 
milian in  order  to  obtain  succours  for  a  continuance  of  the 
war.  The  authenticity  of  that  choice  model  and  rich  ex- 
emplar of  all  future  invectives  is  undisputed  ;  but,  since  it 
has  frequently  been  printed,  we  may  content  ourselves  by 
noticing  a  few  of  its  most  vehement  passages.  "  These 
Venetians,"  says  the  energetic  orator,  '-who  have  abandoned 
the  cause  of  Heaven,  deserve  to  be  execrated  by  God  and 
man,  to  be  hunted  down  by  sea  and  land,  and  to  be  exter- 
minated by  fire  and  sword.  It  would  be  easy  to  show  that 
these  crafty  and  malignant  foxes,  these  proud  and  furious 
lions,  have  entertained  the  design  of  subjugating  Italy  first, 
and  the  Roman  empire  afterward.  If  you  have  weakened 
them,  follow  up  the  blow  and  extinguish  them  altogether ; 
for  unless  you  promptly  bruise  the  head  of  this  venomous 
serpent  while  it  is  yet  stunned  by  your  first  stroke,  I  warn 
you,  that  so  soon  as  it  has  recovered,  it  will  one  day  infect 
you  all  with  its  deadly  poison,  and  strangle  both  yourselves 
and  your  successors  in  its  inextricable  coils."  Then  pro- 
ducing Alexander,  Scipio,  Cssar,  Ulysses,  Antiochus  Epi- 
phanes,  C.  Marius,  Trajan,  Antonine,  Constantine,  and  Q. 
Varus, — the  TIsipeti,  the  Tencteri,  the  Suevi,  the  Marco- 
manni,  the  Quadi,  the  Catti,  the  Sicambri,  the  Heruli,  the 
Vandals,  and  the  Goths,  as  illustrations  of  so  many  separate 
commonplaces  ;  he  adds  a  remark  which,  if  it  were  more 
fully  explained,  might  furnish  a  key  to  the  mysterious  fate 
of  Carmagnuola ;  namely,  that  through  the  ingratitude  of 
the  republic  that  unhappy  nobleman,  the  greatest  captain 
of  his  time,  was  beheaded /or  a  few  words  of  raillery  which 
had  escaped  him.]     Dwelling  with  keen  sarcasm  upon  the 

*  Bembo,  ix.  p.  347. 

t  Propter  facet  urn  aut  cavillosum  dictum. 


166 


L\VECT1\'E    OF    LOUIS    HELIAN. 


maritime  ascendency  of  the  Venetians,  the  ambassador  next 
proceeds  to  stigmatize  them  as  brides  of  Neptune  or  hus- 
bands of  Thetis,  who  espouse  the  sea  by  a  ring ;  a  folly  un- 
heard of  among  other  naval  powers,  w'hether  they  be  Ty- 
nans, Carthaginians,  Rhodians,  Athenians,  Romans,  Per- 
sians, or  Genoese ;  but  worthily  adopted  by  "  these  insa- 
tiate whales,  these  infamous  corsairs,  these  pitiless  cyclops 
and  polyi)hcmi,  who  on  all  sides  besiege  the  ocean,  and  are 
far  more  to  be  dreaded  than  any  sea-monsters,  quicksands, 
sunken  rocks,  or  hurricanes."    'in  a  few  other  similar  flow- 
ers of  vituperative  rhetoric  they  are  described  as  devoted  to 
Mohammed,  not  to  Jesus  ;  boasters  who  assert  that  they 
will  drag  his  Christian  majesty  to  their  dungeons  in  chains, 
and  make  the  pope  their  chaplain  in  ordinary  ;*  wicked 
harpies,  venomous  aspics,  sanguinary  tigers,  neither  Turks 
nor  Christians,  but  a  third  sect  occupying  a  middle  station 
between  good  and  bad  angels,  neither  belonging  to  heaven 
nor  to  hell ;  a  sort  of  loups  garous  and  mischievous  goblins, 
who  wander  by  night  through  men's  houses,  raise  storms 
at  sea,  destroy  the  peasants'  crops  by  hail,  and  take  pos- 
session of  human  bodies  in  order  to  torment  them.     On 
these  very  reasonable  grounds  the  diet  is  invoked  to  arouse 
Itself  for  the  utter  destruction  of  this  haughty  republic,  the 
sink  of  all  pollutions,  the  receptacle  of  every  vice,  a  state 
produced  for  the  ruin  and  persecution  of  mankind  at  large. 
X  few  scattered  incidental  passages  betray  more  distinctly 
than  the  above  railing  accusations  the  actual  reasons  which 
inspired  this  great  bitterness  of  enmity  :  and  from  the  reluc- 
tant confession  of  her  adversaries  we  learn  duly  to  appre- 
ciate the  gigantic  might  of  Venice.     Power,  subtlety,  and 
ambition  she  doubtless  possessed  :  but  it  is  added  that  she 
IS  never  to  be  forgiven  for  having  dared  to  encounter  in  the 
held  the  armies  of  four  great  confederated  princes ;  for 
having  wrested  from  the  King  of  Hungary  three  hundred 
islands,  two  extensive  provinces,  twelve  Episcopal  cities,  and 
a  range  of  ports  spreading  along  five  hundred  miles  of 
coast ;  for  her  repeated  triumphs  over  the  emperors  of  Con- 
stantinople, the  lords  of  Padua  and  Verona,  the  dukes  of 
Milan,  Ferrara,  and  Mantua,  the  emperors  of  the  West,  the 

trum  faciuroS  ^^^^''""""'P^'^^um  capellanum  et  minimum  altaris minis 


/ 


MASSACRE  IN  THE  GROT  OF  LONGARO.        167 

popes,  and  the  kings  of  Naples.  "  Gods  !"  exclaims  the 
orator,  "  what  is  the  abyss,  what  is  the  bottomless  ocean 
which  could  absorb  and  ingulf  so  vast  possessions  at  once ! 
Not  a  century  has  elapsed  since  these  fishermen  emerged 
from  their  bogs ;  and  no  sooner  have  they  placed  foot  on 
Terra  Firma  than  they  have  acquired  greater  dominion  by 
perfidy,  than  Rome  won  by  arms  in  the  long  course  of  two 
hundred  years ;  and  they  have  already  concerted  plans  to 
bridge  the  Don,  the  Rhine,  the  Seine,  the  Rhone,  the  Tagus, 
andlhe  Ebro,  and  to  establish  their  rule  in  every  province 
of  Europe.  These  are  the  people  who  speak  of  themselves 
as  sole  possessors  of  nobility,  as  the  only  sages  of  the 
earth.  For  us,  who  do  not  walk  the  streets  in  purple,  nor 
hoard  treasure  in  our  coffers,  nor  crowd  our  beaiifets  with 
plate,  we  in  their  eyes  are  barbarians,  sots,  and  idiots  ;  they 
hate  us,  they  scorn  us,  they  insult  us  ;  and  both  French  and 
Germans  are  held  up  by  them  to  mockery  and  ridicule. 
What  security  indeed  can  Christendom  expect  from  this 
wicked  republic  while  she  is  allowed  to  retain  Istria,  Croa- 
tia, and  Dahnatia,  the  islands  of  Corfu,  Cephalonia,  Zante, 
Candia,  and  Cyprus  !"*  It  is  scarcely  possible  for  national 
jealousy  to  exhibit  itself  in  stronger  colouring  than  that 
which  imbues  this  harangue  ;  which,  indeed,  furnishes  an 
invaluable  commentary,  not  only  on  the  external  relations 
of  Venice,  but  on  the  general  condition  of  Europe  during 
the  time  at  which  it  was  delivered. 

Maximilian,  aided  by  subsidies  from  his  German  subjects 
and  by  French  auxiliaries,  prepared  for  a  fresh  campaign, 
and  by  numerical  superiority  chased  the  Venetians  from 
most  of  their  fortresses  on  the  Adige  and  the  Brenta.  The 
war  was  conducted  with  unusual  ferocity,  and  we  read 
with  horror  of  two  thousand  fugitives  from  Verona,  many 
of  noble  stock  (Bembo  raises  the  sufferers  to  thrice  that 
numbert),  suffocated  in  a  neighbouring  stone-quarry,  the 
Grot  of  Longaro  ;  whose  unknown  depths   and  intricate 

*  We  have  thrown  together  detached  passajes  of  Ilelian's  speech, 
which  may  he  fouii«i  entire,  among  other  pieces,  appended  to  .lustiniani's 
History  (Argentoniti,  1611).  where  the  oriiiinal  Latin  is  given;  it  is 
translated  at  the  end  of  Amelot  de  la  Houssaye,  Hist,  du  Goxivem.  de 

Venise.  ,     r^  J- 

t  Bembo,  x.  p  370.  Guicciardini  names  this  cavern  "la  GroUa  di 
Massano,"  and  adds,  "  dove  e  fama  morissero  piOi  di  mille  persone," 
lib.  ix.  vol.  ii.  p.  287. 


168 


STRATAGEM  OF  ANDREA  GRITTI. 


EXPLOITS  OF  JULIUS  H. 


169 


windings  afforded  a  refuge  from  which  their  pursuers  were 
unable  to  dislodge  them.     The  savage  French  adventurers, 
lusting  for  booty,  having  piled  straw  and  other  combustibles 
at  the  narrow  mouth  of  the  cavern,  set  them  on  fire  till  the 
rock  glowed  like  a  furnace.     All  within,  except  a  single 
individual,  perished  in  torment;  some  of  the  women  in  the 
agony  of  untimely  throes,   together  with   their  new-born 
babes.     One  youth,  having  penetrated  the  very  bowels  of 
the  souicrraiUy   and  having  unexpectedly  found  a  scanty 
supply  of  air  from  a  fissure   above,  was  dragged  out  some 
hours   afterward  "more   dead  than    alive,  so  discoloured 
was  he  by  smoke."     Bayard's  generous  nature   revolted  at 
this  inhumanity  ;  he  could  obtain  evidence  against  two  only 
of  the  perpetrators,  and  those  he  delivered  to  the  provost- 
marshal  and    saw  them  hanged,  in  his  own   presence,  on 
the  spot  which  they  had  polluted  by  their  cryina  wicked- 
ness.*    Scarcely  less  cruelty  was  manifested  at  the  storm 
of  Monselice,  where  all  quarter  was  denied  ;  most  of  the 
garrison  perished  in  the  flames  of  the  last  tower  to  which 
they  had  retired ;  and  a  few,  who  leaped  from  the  battle- 
ments in  despair,  were  caught  on  pikes  below. 

One  exploit  of  Andrea  Gritti,  during  this  for  the  most 
part  unsuccessful  campaign,  must  not  be  passed  in  silence. 
The  confederates  had  stormed  Porto  Legnano,  and  during 
its  occupation  they  were  frequently  harassed  by  some 
neighbouring  Venetian  posts.  Gritti  was  especially  active 
m  those  rencounters,  and  on  one  occasion  he  overthrew  and 
put  to  the  sword  an  entire  French  detachment.  Of  three 
hundred  men  not  one  escaped  to  convey  intelligence  of 
their  defeat ;  and  upon  that  circumstance' Gritti  founded  a 
shrewd  stratagem,  from  which  he  conceived  strong  hopes 
of  recovering  the  town.  Stripping  the  corpses  of  the  slain, 
tie  clad  an  equal  number  of  his  own  troops  in  the  annour 
of  the  slaughtered  French  ;  mounted  them  on  the  captured 
chargers  ;  and  leaving  five  or  six  score  of  their  comrades 
m  their  proper  appointments,  and  in  the  guise  of  prisoners 
he  despatched  the  band  upon  Legnano,  crying  "  France' 
t  ranee  !  A^ictory,  Victory  !"  Himself,  with  the  remainder 
ot  his  men,  tarried  a  short  space  behhid,  awaiting  a  trumpet 

rnffl^''';/'^  ^^'  ^"y^^^^  ^1-  where  the  author  records  that  of  the  two 
ruffians  thus  executed,  on.^  had  but  a  single  ear,  the  other  none  at  Sl^ 
pretty  clear  evidence  of  punishment  for  former  acts  of  vmany  ' 


0 

! 


which  he  ordered  to  be  sounded  as  soon  as  the  gates  should 
be  opened  ;  a  result  of  which  no  doubt  was  apprehended. 
It  so  happened,  however,  that  the  lieutenant  of  the  garrison 
was  a  sagacious  captain,  who  had  seen  much  service  ;  and 
he,  mounting  the  ramparts  when  he  heard  the  clarions  and 
the  joyous  war-cry,  attentively  reconnoitred  the  company 
below.  After  a  while  he  remarked  to  an  officer  in  attend- 
ance, "  Certes,  those  are  our  horses,  and  the  accoutrements 
also  belong  to  our  men  ;  but  I  do  not  think  the  soldiers 
ride  after  our  fashion,  and  I  am  much  deceived  if  they  are 
ours  ;  in  truth,  my  heart  misgives  me  that  some  misfortune 
has  befallen  us.  Go  you  down,  lower  the  drawbridge,  and 
when  you  have  passed  it  see  that  it  be  raised  again  ;  if  they 
are  our  people,  you  will  readily  know  them  ;  if  they  are 
enemies,  save  yourself  as  well  as  you  can  behind  the  bar- 
riers, and  I  have  here  two  falcons  loaded  which  shall  suc- 
cour you  with  speed."  The  officer  obeyed,  issued  from  the 
fort,  and  approached  and  challenged  the  foremost  horse- 
men. Without  reply,  they  moved  on  briskly,  thinking  that 
the  drawbridge  was  still  lowered  ;  the  captain  jumped  over 
the  barriers,  the  two  falcons  opened  their  fire,  and  Legnano 
was  saved  ;  but  not,  as  the  honest  narrator  concludes, 
without  great  shame  and  loss  to  the  French.* 

In  the  year  which  followed,  the  appearance  of  Julius  II. 
in  arms  at  the  head  of  his  troops,— his  narrow  ^  ^^ 
escape  at  Bologna,  which  he  had  recently  annexed  ^^'^j* 
by  force  to  the  papal  dominions,  and  which  had 
subsequently  been  again  taken  by  the  French, — his  presence 
in  the  trenches  under  a  deep  snow  at  the  siege  of  iMirandula, 
which  he  swore  by  St.  Peter  and  St.  Paul  should  be  won 
by  either  fair  or  foul  means, — his  entrance  of  the  captiired 
city  by  its  breach,— his  flight  before  Bayard,  during  which, 
we  are  told,  "  if  he  had  stopped  to  say  but  a  single  pater- 
noster," and  if  he  had  not,  like  a  man  of  true  spirit,  as- 
sisted in  raising  with  his  own  hands  the  drawbridge  of 
San  Felice,  he  must  inevitably  have  been  taken,t— and  the 

*  Hist,  du  Ch.  Bayard,  xli.  Bonaccorsi  also  relates  tliis  adventure, 
which  is  passed  in  silence  by  all  the  greater  Italian  historians,  ll  is 
plain  that  Guicciardini  had  never  ln-ard  of  it,  for  he  expressly  says  Leg- 
nano was  so  weakened  by  the  cuttinj;  otf  this  detachment,  che  se  vi  si 
fossero  volto  subiio  le  gente  Veneiiane  I'  averebbero  preso,  lib.  ix.  Tol. 
ii.  p.  319. 

t  Car  s'il  east  autant  demeur^  qu^Dn  raecirait  a  dire  un  Paternoster 

Vol.  II.— P 


t 


ajuaaiaeeja 


170 


THE   HOLY   LEAGUE. 


subsequent  assembly  of  the  councils  of  Pisa  and  the  Lateran, 
■whose  decrees  breathed  scarcely  less  fury  than  these  feats 
of  positive  war, — all  these  remarkable  incidents  are  abun- 
dantly related  elsewhere   by  standard   writers  familiar  to 
English  ears  ;  and  Venice,  although  materially  aflected  by 
most  of  those  events,  took  little  direct  part  in  any  one  of 
Oct  5      ^'^^"^*     ^6  pass  on  therefore  to  the  new  confede- 
racy which  astonished  Europe  before  the  close  of 
1511;  the  Holy  Lea gve,  as  it  was  termed,  by  which  the 
pope,  the  Venetians,  and  Ferdinand  of  Aragon,  who  were 
now  seeking  the  depression  of  France,  bound  themselves 
by  mutual  ties  to  maintain  the  unity  of  the  church,  and  to 
expel  Louis  from  Italy.     The  emperor  and  the  King  of 
England  were  invited  to  join  this  anomalous  alliance  ;  the 
former  with  but  a  vague  expectation  of  obtaining  his  con- 
sent, the  latter  with  strong  hope  of  that  active  co-operation 
which  he  soon  afterward  afforded. 

Towards  the  close  of  the  following  January,  the  Spanish 
A.  D.        ''\^^  P''P'^'  troops  invested  IJoIogna,"  but  it  was  re- 
1512.      ^^t^*^^  before  the  Venetians  could  effect  a  junction 
with   them.     The  French  were  now  commanded 
by  Gaston  de  Foix,  Due  de  Nemours  and  nephew  of  their 
kmg  ;  a  prince  who  had   already,  at  twenty-two  years  of 
age,  exhibited  a  splendour  of  military  talentrarely  equalled 
by  the   most  veteran   warriors.      Having  first  checked  a 
menaced   descent  of  the   Swiss  who  had  quarrelled  with 
Louis  on  account  of  scantiness  of  pny,  and  havintr  after- 
ward driven  the  confederates   from   Bologna,  GastSn  con- 
tmued  his  march  on  Brescia  ;  which,  partly  through  the 
assistance  of  one  of  its  nobles,  disgusted  with  the  French 
authorities  by  whom  he  conceived   himself  injured  in  the 
decision  of  a  private   feud,  partly  through  the   unwearied 
activity   of  Gritti,   had   been   recovered   by  Venice.     Few 
stations  were  more  important  than  that  city  to  each  party  ; 
by  the  French  it  was  considered,  after  Milan,  their  strongest 
hold  in  Lombardy ;  to  the  Venetians  it  was  known  by^the 
endearing  name  of  "  the  little  daughter  of  St.  Mark."*     To 

il  esloit  croqu6.-Hist.  dii  Ch.  Bayard,  xliii.  The  expressive  huinour 
or  me  last  word  is  UDtranslatable.  Notwithstanding  hLs  admiration  of 
fh  t^'.h^'  .''P"""  — qu'  'eut  d'homme  de  bon  esprit,— the  writer  tells  us 
extr  (j"^^  'y^^""  ®^°°^  ^''*^  ^^^^  during  the  whole  remainder  of  that 
*  Hist,  du  Ch.  Bayard,  xlviii. 


GASTON   DE    FOIX   ASSAULTS    BRESCIA.        171 

both  therefore  it  was  an  object  well  deserving  contention  ; 
but  although  four  hundred  men-at-arms  and  four  thousan|l 
foot  under  Paolo  Baglione  were  despatched  with  all  expe- 
dition by  the  signory,  to  reinforce  the  garrison,  and  to  re- 
duce the  citadel,  wliich  still  maintained  itself,  the  speed  of 
Gaston  anticipated  their  march.  So  rapid  was  his  advance, 
even  during  mid-winter,  that  he  traversed  nearly  fifty 
leagues  in  five  days,  and  "  left  behind  him  more  country 
than  a  courier  could  ride  over  in  the  same  time  mounted 
on  a  cropped  horse  worth  one  hundred  crowns."*  His  van 
under  Bayard,  having  surprised  Baglione,  was  sufficient  to 
overthrovv  him  with  the  loss  of  all  his  infantry  and  artillery  ; 
and  the  assault  of  Brescia,  which  immediately  followed,  was 
among  the  most  illustrious  portions  of  the  stainless  knight's 
career. 

The  singular  distribution  of  Brescia  has  already  been 
explained  in  our  account  of  a  former  siege, t  and  from  that 
description  it  may  readily  be  understood  in  what  manner 
Gaston  was  able  to  establish  himself  with  his  comrades  in 
the  citadel,  while  the  town  was  in  the  possession  of  the 
Venetians.  His  force  amounted  to  twelve  thousand  men, 
the  flower  of  the  French  chivalry  ;  to  oppose  which,  Gritti 
marshalled  eight  thousand  soldiers  and  about  fourteen 
thousand  irregularly-armed  peasants  and  burghers.  Anx- 
ious to  preserve  this  fair  city  from  pillaj^e,  the  Due  de  Ne- 
mours summoned  Gritti  to  surrender,  with  a  menace  that 
if  he  resisted  not  a  life  should  be  spared  :  but  the  answer 
was  a  mortal  defiance  ;  and  Gaston  therefore  prepared  for 
instant  storm,  consigning  to  Bayard,  at  his  special  request, 
that  which  in  modern  warfare  would  be  called  the  forlorn 
hope.  "  On,  gentlemen  !"  were  the  parting  words  of  the 
duke  ;  "  you  have  no  more  to  do  but  to  show  yourselves 
gallant  companions  ;  on,  in  the  name  of  God  and  of  St. 
Denis  !"  At  the  word,  drums,  trumpets,  and  clarions 
sounded  the  assault  and  alarum  so  impetuously,  that  the 
hair  of  cowards  stood  on  end,  and  the  hearts  of  the  brave 
waxed  greater  within  them.  The  first  cannon-shot  dis- 
charged by  the  Venetians  plunged  into  the  midst   of  the 

*  Hist,  du  Ch.  Bayard,  xlix. 

t  Vol.  ij.  p.  2'2.    Our  following  account  of  the  storm  of  Brescia  ia 
principally  taken  from  Hi  t.  du  Chev.  Bayard,  1. 


1 

i 


172 


SACK  OF  BRESCIA. 


troop  by  which  Gaston  himself  was  surrounded ;    and  a 
marvellous  thing  indeed  was  it  that  no  one  was  hurt,  so 
serried  were  their  ranks ;    and   the  hacquehuteers  mean- 
time from  behind  the  first  rampart  plied  their  bullets  thickly 
as  flics.     The  descent  from  the  eminence  on  which  the 
citadel  stood  had  been  rendered  slippery  by  a  gentle  rain  ; 
Gaston,  therefore,  resolving  not  to  be  among  the  last,  in  order 
that  he  might  walk  more  surely  and  rapidly,  pulled  oil"  his 
shoes,  and  many  others  followed  his  example.     Meantime, 
at  the  foot  of  the  rampart,  at  which  the  chevalier  had  arrived, 
so  hot  was  the  combat,  and  so  vehement  were  the   shouts 
"  Bayard,  Bayard  !  France,  France  !  Marco,  Marco  !"  that 
the  musketeers  could  not  be  heard.     Gritti  loudly  animated 
his  men,  assuring  them  that  the  French  would  soon  be 
tired,  and  that  if  I3ayard  were  once  driven  back,  not  another 
would  dare  approach.     Greatly  however  was  he  deceived  ! 
Bayard  sprang  first  upon  the  breastwork  and  a  thousand 
more  followed  him ;  but  as  he  pressed  forward   upon  the 
retreating  Venetians,  lie  was  struck  in  the  thigh  by  a  pike 
so  deeply  tint  the  shaft  broke,  and  a  part  of  it,  together 
with  the  iron  head,  remained  in  the  wound.     Uro-ino-  on 
his  fellow-soldiers,  but  himsf^lf  unable  to  accompany  them, 
he  was  carried  from  the  spot  by  two  archers,  who  stanched 
the  blood,  now  flowing  copiously,  with  linen  torn  from  their 
own  .persons.     His  fall  roused  his  comrades  to  fury,  and 
they  burst  into  the  streets,  where  the  fight  continued  mur- 
derously ;  the  French  suftering  more  from  the  stones,  tiles, 
and  boiling  water  showered  down  from  the  windows,  chiefly 
by  women,  than  from  the  soldiery  with  whom  they  were 
engaged    hand   to  hand.     At   length,  with  comparatively 
small  loss  to  the  assailants,  seven  thousand  of  their  enemies 
were  left  dead  ;  and  Gritti,  perceiving  that  the  city  was 
lost,  endeavoured  to  escape,  spurred  his  horse  from  street 
to  street,  found  every  issue  obstructed,  threw  himself  into 
a  house,  and  with  the  help  of  a  single  attendant,  barricaded 
and  defended  it  till  he  secured  quarter.     Never  was  a  storm 
more   cruelly  pursued;    twenty  thousand    souls   perished 
while  the  pillage  continued,  and  the  booty  was  estimated  at 
three  millions  of  crowns.     The  capture  of  Brescia,  says 
the  chronicler  whom  we  are  following,  was  the  ruin  of  the 
French  in  Italy,  for  its  plunder  so  enriched  the  troops,  that 


GENEROSITY  OF  THE  CHEVALIER  BAYARD.  173 

many  disbanded  and  quitted  the  war,  who  might  have  done 
good  service  afterward,  as  you  shall  hear,  at  Ravenna.* 

Bayard,  meantime,  was  placed  upon  a  door  torn  from  its 
hinges,  and  carried  to  the  best  looking  house  at  hand.  Its 
owner  was  a  rich  gentleman,  who  had  sought  asylum  in  a 
neighbouring  monastery  ;  and  his  lady  and  two  daughters, 
young  maidens  of  extraordinary  beauty,  had  concealed 
themselves  beneath  some  straw  in  a  granary,  "  under  the 
protection  of  our  Lord."  The  mother,  when  she  heard  the 
knocking  at  the  wicket,  opened  it,  "  as  awaiting  the  mercy 
of  God  with  constancy  ;"  and  Bayard,  notwithstanding  hia 
own  great  pain,  observing  her  piteous  agony,  incontinently 
placed  sentinels  at  the  gate,  and  ordered  them  to  prohibit 
all  entrance,  well  knowing  that  his  name  was  a  watchword 
of  defence.  He  then  assured  the  noble  dame  of  protection 
inquired  into  her  condition,  and  despatching  some  archers 
for  her  husband's  relief,  received  him  courteously,  and  en- 
treated him  to  believe  that  he  lodged  none  other  than  a 
friend.  His  wound  confined  him  for  five  weeks,  nor  was 
it  closed  when  he  remounted  his  horse  and  rejoined  his 
comrades.  Before  his  departure,  the  lady  of  the  house — 
still  considering  herself  and  her  family  as  prisoners,  and 
her  mansion  and  whole  property  as  the  lawful  prize  of  her 
guest,  yet  perceiving  his  gentleness  of  demeanour, — thought 
to  prevail  upon  him  to  compound  for  a  moderate  ransom ; 
and  having  placed  two  thousand  five  hundred  ducats  in  a 
casket,  she  besought  his  acceptance  of  it  on  her  knees. 
Bayard  raised  her  at  the  moment,  seated  her  beside  him- 
self, and  inquired  the  sum.  He  then  assured  her  that  if 
s^ie  had  presented  him  with  one  hundred  thousand  crowns 
they  would  not  gratify  him  so  much  as  the  good  cheer 
which  he  hod  tasted  under  her  roof;  and  he  requested  per- 
mission to  bid  adieu  to  her  daughters.  "  The  damsels," 
says  the  chronicler,  "  were  fair,  virtuous,  and  well-trained, 
aud  had  afforded  much  pastime  to  the  chevalier  during  his 
illness  by  their  choice  singing,  playing  on  the  lute   and 


*  Guicciardini  winds  up  liis  narrative  of  the  miseries  which  Brescia 
endured  in  this  assault,  with  very  remarkable  simplicity.  "Esseiido 
in  preda  le  cose  sa^re  e  le  profane,  no  mono  la  vita  e  i'onore  delle  per- 
sone  che  la  robba  stetle  sette  giorni  coniinui  esposta  all'  avari/.ia,  alia 
likidine,  e  alia  crudeltA  militare  :  iu  celebrato  per  queste  cose  per  tutfa 
la  Ctmstianiti  con  soinma  gloria  il  nome  di  Fois. — Lib.  x.  vol.  ii.  p.  446. 

P2 


174     GENEROSITY  OF  THE  CHEVALIER  BAYARD. 

spinet,  anil  their  much  cunning  needlework."    When  they 
entered  the  chamber,  they  thanked  him  with  deep  gratitude 
as  the  guardian  of  their  honour ;  and  the  good  knight,  al- 
most weepijig  at  their  gentleness  and  humihty,  answered, 
"  Fair  maidens,  you  are  doing  that  which  it  is  rather  my 
part  to  do,  to  thank  you  for  the  good  company  which  you 
have  afforded  me,  and  for  which  I  am  greatly  bound  and 
obliged  to  you.     You  know  that  we  knight-adventurers  are 
ill  provided  with  goodly  toys  for  ladies'  eyes,  and   for  my 
part  I  am  sorely  grieved  not  to  be  better  furnished,  in  order 
that  I  might   offer  you  some  love-token,  as  is  your  due. 
But  your  lady  mother  here  has  given  me  two  thousand  five 
hundred  ducats,  which  lie  on  that  table,  and  I  present  each 
of  you  with  one  thousand  in  aid  of  your  marriage  portions  ; 
for  my  recompense  I  ask  no  more  than  that  you  will  be 
pleased  to  pray  God  for  my  welfare."     Then,  turning  to 
the  lady  of  the   house,  he  continued :  "  These  remaining 
five  hundred  ducats  I  take,  madam,  to  my  own  use  ;  and  I 
request  you  to  distribute  them  among  the  poor  nuns  who 
have  been  pillaged,  and  with  whose  necessities  no  one  can 
be  better  acquainted  than  yourself :  and  herewith  I  take 
my  leave."     After  having  dined,  as  he  quitted  his  chamber 
to  take  horse,  the  two  fair  damsels  met  him,  each  bearing 
a  little  offering  which  she  had  worked  during  his  confine- 
ment ;    one   consisted  of  two  rich  bracelets  woven  with 
marvellous  delicacy  from  her  own  beauteous  hair  and  fine 
gold  and  silver  threads  ;  the  other  was  a  crimson  satin 
purse  embroidered  with  much  subtlety.     Greatly  did  the 
brave  knight  thank  them  for  this  last  courtesy,  saying  that 
such  presents  from  so  lovely  hands  were  worth  ten  thousand 
crowns  ;  then  gallantly  fastening  the  bracelets  on  his  arm 
and  the  purse  on  his  sleeve,  he  vowed  to  wear  them  both, 
for  the  honour  of  their  fair  donors,  while  his  Ufa  endured  • 
and  so  he  mounted  and  rode  on.*  ' 

Bayard  pursued  his  course  to  Ravenna,  where  he  arrived 
just  in  time  to  partake  in  that  dazzling  triunjph  under  its 
walls,  the  source  of  so  much  glory  and  so  passionate  grief 
to  the  French.  In  the  early  part  of  this  campaign  a 
April  11  *^^^^^^rated  astrologer  at  Carpi  had  predicted  that 
\  .11  °"  ^^^^  ensuing  Easter  Sunday  a  great  battle 
should  be  fought,  in  which  Gaston  de  Foix  should  die  in 

*  Hist,  du  Ch.  Bayard,  li. 


DEATH   OF   GASTON   DE   FOIX. 


175 


the  arms  of  victory ;  and  he  had  entreated  De  la  Palisse 
and  Bayard,  as  the  sole  hope  of  their  prince's  escape  from 
the  peril  menaced  by  the  stars,  not  to  lose  sight  of  him  while 
on  the  field.*  The  event  corresponded  with  the  prediction  ; 
a  battle  was  fought  on  the  day  specified  by  the  seer,  and 
Bayard,  during  the  heat  of  action,  seems  to  have  obeyed 
his  injunction  ;  but  when  the  allies  were  routed  and  flying 
in  confusion,  he  urged  the  duke  to  collect  his  men-at-arms 
and  restrain  them  for  a  short  season  from  plunder,  while 
himself  joined  in  the  pursuit ;  at  the  same  time  requiring  a 
promise  that,  until  he  returned,  Gaston  would  not  advance 
from  the  spot  on  which  he  then  stood.  This  short  absence, 
however,  proved  fatal !  for  the  gallant  prince,  unable  to 
resist  a  favourable  opportunity  of  charging  some  Spanish 
infantry  which  still  remained  unbroken,  threw  himself  at 
the  head  of  his  men-at-arms  ;  became  entangled  on  a  cause- 
way between  a  canal  and  a  deep  ravine  ;  fought  on  foot, 
after  his  horse  had  been  hamstrung  ;  and  fell  by  unknown 
and  probably  obscure  hands,  mangled  with  fifteen  wounds, 
all  in  front  and  chiefly  in  the  face.f  Bayard  did  not  learn 
this  great  calamity  till  after  he  had  permitted  the  escape  of 
the  Spaniards  by  whom  Gaston  had  been  slain.  He  en- 
countered them  while  he  was  returning  to  the  post  on  which 
he  had  left  the  duke,  received  their  submission  and  the  sur- 
render of  their  standards,  and  abhorring  needless  slaughter 
in  cold  blood,  granted  quarter,  and  permitted  them  to  con- 
tinue their  retreat. 

The  Venetian  contingent  had  not  heen  present  on  this 
day  so  fatal  to  their  allies ;  and  notwithstanding  the  con- 
sternation which  the  defeat  at  Ravenna  had  first  excited  in 
Rome,  it  soon  became  evident  that  the  conquerors  had  suf- 
fered far  too  deeply  to  profit  by  their  most  brilliant  but  falla- 
cious success.  The  flower  of  their  troops  as  well  as  of 
their  captains  had  perished  on  that  hard-fought  field  ;  and 
La  Palisse,  upon  whom  the  command  devolved,  found  him- 
self at  the  head  of  a  force  greatly  weakened  in  numbers, 
and  among  whom  discipline  had  been  almost  wholly  de- 
stroyed by  the  richness  of  their  booty,  both  in  the  late  vic- 
tory and  at  Brescia.  To  increase  his  embarrassments,  the 
pope  temporized  with  artful  and  perfidious  negotiations. 


Hist,  du  Chev.  Bayard,  xlvii. 


t  Id.  liv. 


176 


RECONQUEST    OF   LOMBARDY. 


MAXIMILIAN    6F0RZA. 


177 


Henry  VIII.  openly  acceded  to  the  holy  league ;  the  de- 
feated confederates  reassembled  in  Romagna ;  and  Maxi- 
milian not  only  prolonged  his  truce  with  the  sianory,  but 
gave  permission  to  twenty  thousand  Swiss  to  traverse  his 
dominions,  pour  down  from  the  mountains  of  the  Tyrol, 
and  effect  their  junction  with  a  force  of  ten  thousand  Vene- 
tians now  organized  in  Lombardy.     The  faithlessness  of 
the  emperor,  indeed,  became  more  plainly  visible  everv 
hour;  discontent  and  disunion  were  rife  in  the  French 
army ;  more  than  once,  in  some  skirmishes  while  retiring 
on  the  Mincio,  nothing  but  the  almost  incredible  prowess 
of  Bayard  saved  it  from  destruction ;  and  of  this  last  sup- 
port It  was  deprived,   when  his  arm  was  shattered  by  a 
bullet  under  the  walls  of  Pavia.     Harassed  by  these  com- 
plicated difllculties,  La  Palissc  continued  his  painful  re- 
treat ;  and  the  army  which  had  triumphed  so  memorably  at 
Kavenna  on  the  11th  of  April,  began  to  reascend  the  Alps 
on  the  23th  of  June,  broken,  exhausted,  and  dispirited.    Its 
departure  was  a  signal  for  the  almost  general  emancipation 
ot   Northern  Italy.     Genoa  revolted  ;  Asti  acknowledcred 
her  former  rulers  ;  Milan  was  reoccupied  by  the  allies,  and 
Its  inhabitants,  exasperated  by  the  oppression  under  which 
they  had  recently  groaned,  revenged  themselves  by  a  savao-e 
massacre  of  one  thousand  five  hundred  defenceless  French, 
leftwithm  their  walls  either  from  infirmity  or  inclination. 
A  fevv  scattered  castles,  little  capable  of  resisting  the  ap- 
proaches  either  of  force  or  famine,  were  all  that  Remained 
to  Louis  of  his  rapid  and  extensive  conquests  in  Italy. 

But  the  following  year  gave  birth  to  new  interests  and 
new  coalitions,  and  in  surveying  the  labyrinth  of  incon- 
A.  D.  ^^^^^^y  ^'"^  intrigue  which  the  history  of  Europe 
1513.  P^fsents  at  that  season,  the  writer  must  think  him- 
self fortunate  whose  task  confines  him  to  the  single 
state  of  Venice.  Julius  II.,  although  on  the  verge  of  tTie 
tomb,  still  contmued  to  cherish  with  undiminished  fervour 
lus  favourite  design  of  expelling  the  barbarians  from  Italy,* 

of*th^''pr  ^'"^"^'''V?''',^  '''^'  continually  on  his  lips.    The  Inst  chanter 
oLIm  fn  ,    '^"  ''^  ^^a^'^'a^ell'  13  wholly  directed  to  that  great  p.  riotic 

frTr  dT  InuIId  them  2  JS-'''  ""'''^'"^"^  P^^^'  ^"^^'•'>«'  dissensionsVad 
eT«r  perrnitiea  them  to  effect  a  general  union  for  the  purpose ! 

Qual  Odin,  qual furor,  qual  ira  immane, 
Wuai  planete  maligni, 
Han  vjstre  vosrlic  unite  kor  si  divise  ? 


If 


^:^ 


and  his  general  views  of  aggrandizing  the  holy  see.  One, 
therefore,  of  his  earliest  measures  was  to  place  the  sway 
of  Milan  in  the  hands  of  a  governor  dependent  upon  him- 
self, and  irreconcilably  hostile  to  France  ;  both  of  which 
requisites  were  found  united  in  the  person  of  Maximilian 
Sforza,  eldest  son  of  the  deposed  Lodovico ;  a  youth  of 
weak  capacity,  who,  during  his  father's  imprisonment,  had 
found  refuge  in  Germany.  It  was  on  the  announcement 
of  that  disposition  of  the  throne  of  Milan  that  Louis  XII. 
is  said  to  have  released  Lodovico  from  his  dungeon  at 
Loches,  with  the  intention  of  turning  him  loose  on  his 
former  dominions  for  the  sole  purpose  of  creating  embroil- 
ment ;  but  authorities  are  at  variance  on  this  point,  and  by 
many  writers  the  death  of  the  unhappy  prince  is  placed 
several  years  earlier.^  Matthieu  Schiner,  the  cardinal  of 
Sion  in  the  Valais,  an  ambitious  and  turbulent  prelate,  who 
possessed  unbounded  influence  over  his  countrymen,  and 
accompanied  their  armies  to  the  field,  "  that  good  prophet," 
as  Bayard's  chronicler  styles  him,  "  who  always  hated  the 
French,"  was  intrusted  with  the  escort  and  inauguration 
of  the  young  Sforza ;  and  the  first  disgraceful  act 
of  that  bigoted  priest  upon  his  entrance  into  Milan  ^fc/|' 
was  the  exhumation  of  the  remains  of  Gaston  de  ^  ^'^* 
Foix,  which  had  been  interred  in  the  Duomo,  and  their 
transfer,  as  excommunicated,  to  less  holy  ground  in  the 
nunnery  of  Sta.  Martha.  When  the  French  reoccupied 
Milan  three  years  afterward,  they  raised  a  splendid  monu- 
ment to  their  prince  in  that  nunnery ;  the  tomb  itself  has 
been  destroyed,  but  a  noble  statue  of  Gaston  which  formed 
part  of  it,  well  betokening  his  lofly  character,  long  re- 
mained, and  perhaps  still  remains,  built  into  the  wall  of  an 
obscure  court  adjoining  Sta.  Martha. 

In  the  distribution  of  the  reconquered  territories  in  Lom- 
bardy, little  attention  had  been  paid  to  the  just  claims  of 
Venice,  whose  humihation  formed  another  part  of  the  policy 
of  Julius.  The  sole  places  which  she  regained  were  Ber- 
gamo, won  by  surprise,  and  Crema,  for  whose  surrender  she 
bribed  the  French  commander.  Upon  complaint  to  Maxi- 
milian, the  signory  were  haughtily  informed  that  it  was  but 
a  small  portion  of  Terra  Firma  upon  which  they  might 

*  Vol.  u.  p.  133. 


178 


VENICE  LEAGUES  WITH  FRANCE. 


BATTLE  OF  NOVARRA. 


179 


hope  to  re-enter;  and  that  whatever  territory  might  be 
granted  must  be  held  as  a  fief  of  the  empire  ;  for  investi- 
ture with  which  they  must  consent  to  pay  two  hundred 
thousand  florins  immediately,  and  a  perpetual  annual  tribute 
of  thirty  thousand  more.  At  that  price,  it  was  added,  the 
existing  truce  should  be  extended  into  peace.  Indignant 
at  those  inequitable  and  ignominious  terms,  the  senate  ap- 
pealed to  the  Vatican  ;  but  Julius  felt  little  hope  of  com- 
passing his  ulterior  designs  without  the  co-operation  of  the 
emperor,  and  forgetting  therefore  all  gratitude  for  the  past, 
in  an  anxious  looking  to  the  future,  he  abandoned  that 
power  which,  when  he  provoked  the  hostility  of  France,  had 
been  his  earliest  ally  ;  and  promised  Ma^ximilian  that  if  the 
signory  persisted  in  refusing  his  proposals,  he  would  treat 
them  as  his  own  enemies. 

To  the  republic,  thus  oppressed  by  the  emperor  and  de- 
serted by  the  pope,  an  accommodation  with  France  appeared 
the  surest  safeguard ;  and,  on  the  other  hand,  the  acquisi- 
tion of  such  an  ally  as  Venice  was  important  to  Louis,  now 
harassed  by  England,  Spain,  and  Swisserland,  all  in  arms 
at  once  on  different  quarters  of  his  dominions.  Andrea 
Gritti,  who  had  remained  prisoner  since  his  capture  at 
Brescia,  afforded  a  channel  for  negotiation ;  and  a  treaty 
March  14  S^^  rapidly  concluded  at  Blois,  by  which  the 
1513. '  ^'^^"^h  king  engaged  to  despatch  a  powerful  force 
to  unite  with  the  Venetian  army,  and  both  parties 
pledged  themselves  to  continue  in  arras  till  each  had  re- 
covered its  ancient  possessions  ;  the  adjustment  of  the 
precise  boundaries  of  which  was  reserved  for  subsequent 
discussion. 

Before  that  alliance  was  signed,  Julius  If.  had  closed  his 
unpontifical  career ;  and  he  was  succeeded  by  the  Cardinal 
de'  Medici,  who,  present  as  legate  of  the  church  at  the  bat- 
tle of  Ravenna,  had  been  taken  prisoner  there ;  and  now, 
on  the  first  anniversary  of  that  engagement,  assumed  the 
triple  crown,  under  the  title  of  Leo  X.  No  change,  how- 
ever, being  produced  at  the  moment  in  the  policy  of  the 
Vatican,  the  French  retraced  their  now  fiimiliar  path  across 
the  Alps,  under  La  Tremouille  and  Trivulzio,  captains 
trained  and  nurtured  in  the  former  Italian  wars;  while 
D'Alviano  was  released  from  the  confinement  in  which  he 
had  been  detained  since  his  defeat  at  Agnadello,  in  order  to 


resume  the  command  of  the  Venetians.  Milan  soon  fell 
an  easy  conquest,  and  Maximilian  Sforza,  chased  from  his 
short-lived  sovereignty,  took  refuge  in  the  Swiss  camp  at 
Novarra;  the  spot  at  which,  thirteen  years  before,  his 
father  had  been  betrayed  by  the  same  allies  to  the  French, 
under  the  same  generals  who  now  commanded  them.  More 
faithful  to  their  present  engagements  with  the  Milanese 
prince,  or  rather  animated  by  deeper  hostility  against  Louis, 
the  Swiss  now  ennobled  Novarra  by  a  brilliant  action,  ter- 
minating in  the  entire  overthrow  of  the  invaders,*  ,  ^ 
who  hastily  regained  the  Alps,  and  abandoned  D'Al- 
viano, then  encamped  near  Cremona.  Compelled  to  a 
speedy  retreat,  he  threw  himself  into  Padua,  while  Bagli- 
one  undertook  the  defence  of  Treviso,  the  two  sole  outposts 
now  retained  by  Venice.  Padua  successfully  defended 
itself  during  a  Utisk  investment  of  eighteen  days  by  the  con- 
federates ;  and  their  commander,  Don  Raymondode  Car- 
dona,  viceroy  of  Naples,  irritated  by  his  failure,  and  embar- 
rassed both  for  money  and  supplies,  revenged  himself  by 
an  extensive  and  merciless  ravajje  of  the  surroundinjr  coun- 
try.  The  rich  villas  and  palaces  of  the  Venetian  nobles  on 
the  Brenta  and  the  Bacchiglione,  and  the  towns  of  Mestre, 
Fusina,  and  Marghera,  on  the  borders  of  the  Lagnne,  were 
given  to  the  flames  ;  and,  in  imitation  of  the  former  similar 
bravado  of  Louis  XII. ,t  a  battery  of  ten  guns,  of  large 
caliber,  was  advanced  as  near  the  capital  as  circumstances 
permitted.  While  the  citizens  beheld  from  their  spires  and 
bell-towers  the  conflacrration  of  the  neifjhbourinor  villajres, 
in  which,  in  many  instances,  they  could  discover  the  fall 


*  Paulus  Jovius  recounts,  that  on  the  evening  before  the  battle  of  No- 
varra, all  the  dogs  which  followed  the  French  army  deserted,  magno 
con'itierttique  ni^mine,  to  the  Swiss  ;  and  by  wagging  their  tails,  droop- 
ing their  ears,  and  licking  the  feet  of  the  sentinels,  testified  subjection  to 
their  new  masters.  This  occurrence  was  formally  notified  to  Maximiiiaii 
Sforza  as  a  certain  omen  of  approaching  victory,  observed  on  former  oc- 
casions (xi.  p.  169).  However  credulous  an  Italian  bishop  might  be  in 
the  sixteenth  century,  there  are  few  marvels  (true  or  false)  upon  which  a 
philosophical  French  abbe  of  the  eighteenth  would  not  seek  to  rational- 
ize;  and  Dubos,  accordingly,  tells  us  that  the  reason  for  the  desertion 
by  the  dogs  was,  in  trulii,  no  other  than  that  having  gone  out  in  search 
of  food  in  the  morning,  and  not  finding  their  old  masters  on  their  posts 
when  they  returned,  they  very  naturally  went  over  to  Novarra  in  search 
of  others.— Hist,  de  la  Llgue  de  Cambray,  lib.  iv. 

t  Vol.  Ji.  p.  147. 


180 


BATTLE  OF  MOTTA. 


EMBASSY  OF  BEMBO. 


181 


of  their  own  private  roofs,  they  were  afflicted  with  a  yet 
deeper  sense  of  ignominy  when  the  cannonade  reached  the 
monastery  of  San  Secondo,  situated  but  a  few  hundred 
paces  in  advance  of  Venice  itself.* 

Nor  did  their  reverses  terminate  here.  D'AIviano,  impa- 
tient of  the  devastation  around  him,  earnestly  entreated 
permission  to  issue  from  Padua  and  to  take  the  field.  But 
his  troops  shared  little  in  the  determined  courage  of  the'r 
general ;  and  when,  after  many  days'  manceuvring,  he 
Q^j^  y  brought  the  Spaniards,  laden  with  booty  and  ex- 
hausted by  fatigue,  to  action  at  Motta,  near  Vi- 
cenza,  the  Venetians  gave  way  almost  at  the  first  onset,  leav- 
ing four  thousand  dead  on  the  field.  D'Alviano  himself 
escaped  to  Treviso  ;  Baglione  was  taken  prisoner ;  of  the 
provvedifori^  Loredano  was  slain  by  some  Spaniards  dispu- 
ting for  him  as  their  prize ;  and  Gritti,  pursued  to  the  very 
ramparts  of  Vicenza,  found  its  gates  closed  by  the  garrison, 
and  but  for  a  rope  thrown  by  a  sentinel  from  its  battlements, 
must  have  paid  the  forfeit  of  liberty,  or,  perhaps,  even  of  life. 

A  great  domestic  calamity  succeeded  these  military  dis- 
asters. Some  shops  adjoining  the  Rialto  having  caught 
Jan.  10.  ?''^'  ^^^  flames  were  carried  by  a  high  north  wind 
1514.  ^^^^  ^}^^  ^^^^  populous  and  commercial  quarter  of 
the  city ;  where  not  less  than  two  thousand  houses, 
together  with  their  entire  contents,  were  destroyed ;  and 
the  loss  of  this  single  night  was  estimated  as  equal  to  the 
cost  of  a  whole  campaign.  By  a  singular  chance,  while  all 
the  surrounding  buildings  were  consumed,  the  church  of 
San  Giacopo,  the  earliest  memorial  of  the  original  fugitives 
from  Aquileia,  and  of  which  the  foundations  were  traced 
to  the  commencement  of  the  fifth  century,!  escaped  with 

*  Guicciardini,  lib.  xi.  vol.  iii.  p.  90. 

t  Vol.  i.  p.  19.  This  fire,  and  the  escape  of  the  church,  are  described 
by  Paulus  Jovius,  xii.  204,  and  by  P.  Justiniani,  xii.  319.  The  latter  is 
unusually  animated.  "  Mcmini  adolescens  ad  loci:m  incendii  spectandi 
gratia  accessisse,  turn  rniserabilem  cladem,  expavescenteinque  incensa- 
rum  ajdium  ruinam  intultus.  ingentem  animo  mcerorem  concepi ;  jace- 
bant  prostrata^  voraci  flammA  speciosa^  a;dium  structur.T,  niolesque  dis- 
jectse  deformem  latd  loci  faciem  reddebanl,  fumusqne  ac  favillffi  ex 
ruderunri  cuihulis  in  suinmum  volvebantur ;  hinc  ruinas,  illinc  semidi- 
ruta  videbam  a;dificia,  ardentes  alio  loco  trabes,  alio  columnas,  fornices, 
arcus  collapsos,  ac  cineribus  ignique  omnia  involuta,  in  ipsis  auteni 
Jlammis  gemma.*,  aurum,  argentum,  ebur,  aliaque  preciosa  ornamenta 
interftilgebant. 


sliaht  damafTC,  and  aiforded  to  the  willing  belief  of  the 
populace  a  fresh  pledge  of  the  immortality  of  their  clt>^ 
Undismayed  by  this  new  misfortune,  the  signory  continued 
their  exertions,  enrolled  the  workmen  of  the  arsenal  as  a 
garrison  for  Padua,  and  by  largely  recruiting  D'Alviano, 
gave  him  opportunity  of  renewing  a  straggling  war  of  par- 
tisanship,  and  of  winning  many  not  unimportant  advan- 
tages, even  in  the  face  of  his  victorious  enemy. 

It*was  at  this  period  that  Bembo,  himself  a  Venetian, 
was  deputed  by  Leo  X.,  in  whose  service  he  was  engaged 
as  secretary,  to  endeavour  to  wean  his  countrymen  from 
their  alliance  with  France,  and  to  induce  them  to  propitiate 
the"  emperor  by  an  abandonment  of  their  claim  upon  Verona, 
now  the  chief  subsisting  cause  of  hostility.     The  proposta 
which  the  ambassador  addressed  to  the  signory  on  that  occa- 
sion is  still  extant  among  his  works,*  and  affords  a  remark- 
able specimen  of  the  cumbrous  diplomacy  of  the  sixteenth 
century  ;  especially  in  those  arguments  which  he  derives 
from  the  recent  marriage  of  Louis  XIL,  now  past  the  me- 
ridian  of  life,  with  the  young  and  lovely  Mary  of  England, 
sister  to  Henry  VIIL,  the  most  beautiful  woman  of  her 
time      But  the  assertion  of  Bembo,  that  the  French  mon- 
arch would  forget  all  warlike  cares  in  the  arms  of  his  at- 
tractive bride,  and  his  prediction  that  his  days  would  be 
abridged  also  by  that  ill-assorted  match,  failed  to   ^^^  ^ 
shake  the  fidelity  of  the  signory.    They  broke  oft  the    ^5^5^ 
necrotiation,  and  despatched  an  embassy  to  congratu- 
late Louis  on  his  nuptials,  which  was  met,  wlule  on  its 
route,  by  the  tidings  of  his  decease. 

His  successor,  Francis  L,  received  the  Venetian  envoys 
with  distinction,  renewed  the  treaty  of  Blois,  assumed  the 
title  of  Duke  of  Milan,  and  engaged  to  appear  in  arms  on 
the  banks  of  the  Adda  before  the  close  of  four  months.  In 
the  early  part  of  the  expedition  undertaken  in  tulfilment  of 
this  promise,  the  Venetians  were  principally  occupied  in 
observin«T  a  Spanish  force  between  the  IVlincio  and  the 
Adige,  in  order  to  prevent  its  junction  with  the  Swiss,  who, 
retiring  from  the  defiles  of  the  Alps  before  the  advance  of 
the  French,  had  occupied  Milan.  No  sooner,  however,  had 
Francis  arrived  and  encamped  at  Marignano,  than  D  Alvi- 


Vol.  IL— Q 


ampt 
*  Opera,  iii  478. 


ll 

1 


109 


t>  A  T'TT  "P    m?    -M  Ktyy/>ikj  K\r  ri 


^a 


182 


BATTLE  OF  MARIGNANO. 


CHIVALROUS  EXPLOITS  OF  BAYARD. 


183 


ano  Droke  up  from  his  more  distant  quarters,  and  by  a  march 
of  unexampled  rapidity,  pressed  forward  to  Lodi.     It  was 
on  the  afternoon  of  the  13th  of  September  that  the  Vene- 
tian general,  with  three  or  four  attendants,  rode  to  the 
French  camp,  in  order  to  salute  the  king,  and  to  consult 
with  him  respecting  the  plan  of  the  campaign  ;  and  while 
engaged  in  familiar  conversation  in  the  royal  tent,  where 
Francis  was  trying  on  a  new  suit  of  armour,  the  Seigneur 
de  Fleuranffes  burst  in  with  breathless  haste,  and  announced 
that  the   Swiss  were  unexpectedly  advancing.     "  Signor 
Bartolomeo,"  said  the  king,  turning  to  D'Alviano,  "  you  see 
how  we  are  circumstanced  ;  I  pray  you  lose  no  time  ;"  and 
at  the  words  the  general  sprang  upon  his  horse,  and  gal- 
loped back  to  Lodi,  to  put  his  troops  in  immediate  motion. 
Meantime  the  battle  commenced  ;  and  the  Swiss,  frustrated 
in  their  first  hope  of  surprise,  rushed  on  the  French  artil- 
lery, in  spite  of  its  terrific  fire,  and,  in  many  instances,  cap- 
tured the  guns.  Francis  himself,  with  all  the  ardour  of  youth, 
plunged  into  the  thickest  of  the  fight ;  owed  his  life,  more 
than  once,  to  the  good  temper  of  his  armour ;  cut  down 
several  of  the  enemy  with  his  own  hand  :  and  when  mid- 
night separated  the  combatants,  and  the  gigantic  horns  of 
TJri  and  Underwald  recalled  the  Swiss  to  their  quarters, 
snatched  a  brief  repose  on  the  carriage  of  a  gun,  and  passed 
the  remaining  hours  of  darkness  on  horseback,  making  dis- 
positions for  the  morrow.     At  daybreak  the  engagement 
was  renewed  with  more  than  former  fury,  and  its  fortune 
was  still  doubtful,  and  perhaps  inclining  against  the  French, 
when,   about  nine  o'clock,  the  seasonable  appearance  of 
D'Alviano  decided  in  their  favour.     He  had  ridden  all  night, 
and  gathering  two  hundred  picked  horsemen,  and  ordering 
the  rest  of  his  army  to  follow  with  the  utmost  speed,  he 
returned  to  the  field  at  the  very  moment  at  which  he  was 
most  needed.     Instantly  charging,  although  not  without 
considerable  loss,  he  checked  a  successful  column  of  Swiss, 
and  impressed  their  comrades  with  a  belief  that  the  entire 
Venetian  army  had  arrived.     Despairing,  therefore,  of  vic- 
tory, they  retired  upon  their  quarters,  slowly,  in  good  order, 
still  breathing  fierceness,  and  defying  pursuit.     The  move- 
ment was  effected  with  little  other  loss  than  that  of  some 
**'*^gfj6rs,  who  were  destroyed  by  D'Alviano  in  the  flames 
of  a  village  which  they  endeavoured  to  dcftnd.    The  carnage 


of  the  two  days'  fight  was  horrible  ;  twelve  thousand  Swiss, 
and  about  four  thousand  French,  many  of  noble  blood,  re- 
mained on  the  field  ;  and  the  veteran  Trivuizio,  who  had 
been  present  in  no  less  than  eighteen  pitched  battles,  spoke 
of  all  his  former  engagements  as  children's  sport  compared 
with  this,  and  named  it  "The  Combat  of  the  Giants."* 

The  battle  of  Marignano  brought  the  glories  of  Bayard 
to  their  height.     In  one  of  the  closing  charges  on  the  first 
evening,  the  brave  knight,  having  already  had  one  horse 
killed  under  him,  was  entangled  among  the  pikes  of  the 
enemy,  and  lost  his  bridle.    His  charger,  thus  freed,  became 
unmanageable ;  and  although  he  dashed  through  the  sur- 
rounding hosts  and  disengaged  his  master,  he  coniinued  to 
rush  blindly  on  in  the  direction  of  another  corps  of  Swiss. 
The  clusters  hanging  from  tree  to  tree  in  an  intervening 
vineyard  fortunately  checked  his  speed,  and  enabled  Bayard 
to  dismount  at  a  moment  in  which  he  considered  himself 
utterly  lost.     Then  disencumbering  himself  of  his  greaves 
and  helmet,  he  crept  on  all-fours  along  the  course  of  a  ditch, 
which  carried  him  past  the  Swiss  detachment,  to  a  point 
from  which  he  hoard  shouts  of  "  France,  France  !"     Great 
was  his  joy  when  the  first  man  whom  he  encountered  was 
the  Duke  of  Lorraine  ;  who,  astonished  to  see  so  gallant  a 
knight  on  foot,  mounted  him  on  a  fresh  horse,  to  which  is 
attached  a  history  partaking  of  the  romance  which  belongs 
go  largely  to  his  master.     That  good  steed  Carman  was 
taken  °at  Brescia ;  presented  by  the  Duke  of  Lorraine  to 
Bayard ;  and  ridden  by  him  at  Ravenna,  till  two  thrusts 
from  a  pike  in  its  body,  and  more  than  twenty  sabre  cuts  on 
its  head,  obliged  him  to  abandon  his  favourite  as  mortally 
wounded.     On  the  morning  atler  the  battle,  however,  the 
generous  animal  was  found  grazing,  recognised  his  master 
by  an  atVectionate  neigh,  and  was  conveyed  to  his  quarters, 
where  his  wounds  were  carefully  tended  till  he  recovered. 
Marvellous  was  it  to  behold  how  patiently  he  submitted 
without  a  start  or  movement  to  the  searching  hands  which 
dressed  his  gashes  ;  yet  if  a  naked  sword  glittered  near  him, 
his  eyes  flashed  with  fury,  and  seizing  the  blade  he  wrung 
it  vengefuUy  with  his  teeth.     Never  yet  did  you  see  a  more 
gallant  steed ;  he  was,  in  truth,  what  Bucephalus  was  to 
Alexander ! 

*  GuicciardiJii,  lib.  xil.  vol,  iti  p.  167  , 


184 


FRANCIS  I.  KNIGHTED  BY  BAYARD. 


The  chevalier,  well  satisfied  to  be  thus  remounted  on  his 
favourite  horse,  showed  the  same  joyous  humour,  traits  of 
which  we  have  more  than  once  before  noticed ;  and  by  a 
playful  stratagem  replaced  the  helmet  which  he  had  thrown 
away.     Turning  to  a  gentleman  of  his  acquaintance  who 
was  standing  by,  he  expressed  fear  of  catching  cold  if  he 
continued  bareheaded  after  the  violent  heat  occasioned  by 
his  long  exertions  on  foot.     "  Prithee,  then,"  he  said,  "  lend 
me  for  an  hour  or  two  that  helmet  which  I  see  your  page 
has  in  his  hands."     The  helmet  was  readily  lent,  but  it  was 
not  returned  to  its  owner  till  the  close  of  the  next  day's 
battle,  after  it  had  seen  hard  service.*     It  was  also  on  the 
field  of  this  great  victory  that  Trancis  I.  demanded  knight- 
hood from  Bayard,  who  would  fain  have  excused  himself; 
replying  that  he  who  was  king  of  so  great  a  kingdom  was 
already  knight  of  all  orders  of  knighthood.     "  Cite  me  no 
canons,''  answered   Francis,  with  a  poor  jest,  which  has 
been  thought  worth  preserving,   "  be  they  of  steel,  brass, 
or  iron  !     Do  my  will  and  commandment,  if  you  mean  to  be 
esteemed  among  the  number  of  my  good  servants  and  sub- 
jects."    Thus  pressed.  Bayard  drew  his   sword   and  ad- 
dressed the  king,  "  Sire,  may  you  be  valiant  as  Roland, 
Oliver,  Godfrey,  or  Baldwin  !     Certes  you  are  the  first  king 
who  ever  yet  was  dubbed  knight.     God  grant  that  you  may 
never  be  put  to  flight  in  battle  !"  and  then,  holding  his 
sword  on  high,  after  giving  the  accolade,  he  cried  aloud, 
"  Happy  art  thou,  my  good  sword,  this  day  to  have  knighted 
so  virtuous  and  powerful  a  king!     Certes,  hencrforvvard 
thou  shalt  be  regarded  as  a  relic,  and  honoured  above  all 
things  ;  never  again  will  I  unsheath  thee    save  against 
Turks,  Saracens,  and  Moors  !"  and  then,  making  two  leaps, 
he  returned  it  to  the  scabbard. f 

This  bloody  victory  was  not,  like  that  of  Ravenna,  bar- 
ren of  results.  The  Swiss  having  retired  to  their  moun- 
tains, and  the  Spaniards  to  cover  Naples,  Milan  once  more 
surrendered;  and  Maximilian  Sforza,  who  had  sought 
shelter  within  its  citadel,  abandoned  its  defence,  and  ac- 
cepted a  pension,  and  a  retreat  in  France,  with  a  promise  of 
the  king's  influence  to  obtain  him  a  cardinal's  hat ;  happy 
in  disembarrassing  himself  from  a  contest  which  nature  had 

*  Hist,  du  Chev.  Bayard,  Ix. 

t  Champier,  Hist,  du  Chev.  Bayard, 


X 


DEATH  OF  d'aLVIANO. 


185 


rll  qualified  him  to  support.     The  pope,  hastening  to  nego- 
tiate, concluded  peace,  first  with  Venice,  by  conceding  her 
ritrht  to  Brescia  altogether,  and  to  Verona  so  far  as  himself 
was  concerned  ;  and  then  with  France,  by  permitting  the 
reannexation  of  Parma  and  Piacenza,  which  had  been  sev- 
ered from  the  duchy  of  Milan.     Francis,  having  agreed  to 
these  conditions,  and  adjusted  also  a  treaty  with  Swisser- 
land,  known  in  history  as  La  Paix  perpelucllc,  which  con- 
tinued the  basis  of  all  subsequent  relations  between  the 
two  countries  till  the  revolution  of  17S9,  disbanded  the 
greater  part  of  his  army,  and  returned  home.     But  the  field 
was  still  kept  by  the  Venetians,  for  although  Brescia  had 
been  ceded  by  the  pope,  it  was  garrisoned  by  his  confede- 
rates.    While  the  indefatigable  D'Alviano  was  preparing  to 
reduce  it,  a  severe  and  painful  disorder,  produced  by  his 
great  exertions  at  Marignano,  terminated  his  life  in    qci.  7. 
his  6lst  year.     Venice  was  grateful  for  his  splendid 
services  and  virtues,  and  decreed  the  honours  of  a  public 
funeral  in  the  capital.     His  corpse  remained  in  the  camp 
twenty-three  days,  during  the  whole  of  which  time  his  soldiers 
mounted  guard  at  the  tent  in  which  it  reposed,  and  paid  it 
the  honour  due  to  a  living  general  ;  and  then,  strongly  im- 
pressed with  the  feeling  that  he  who  while  alive  never  shrank 
from  the  face  of  his  enemies  ought  not  to  avoid  confronting 
them  even  when  dead,  they  refused  to  demand  safe-conduct 
from  the  Austrians  ;   and  fearlessly  escorted  the  remains  of 
their  beloved  leader,  through  the  middle  of  the  hostile  posts, 
to  the  borders  of  the  Lagune.     The  funeral  oration  was 
spoken  by  Navagiero,  and  a  superb  monument  to  D'Alviano's 
memory  was  erected  in  the  church  of  San  Stefimo. 

In  the  following  spring,  Maximilian,  bent  upon  one  great 
effort  for  his  re-establishment  in  Italy,  poured  down  ^  ^ 
unexpectedly  upon  the  Lombard  plains  with  nearly  j^jg* 
forty  thousand  men.  His  vast  superiority  over  the 
small  French  and  Venetian  force  must  have  ensured  the 
immediate  fall  of  Milan,  but  for  a  dilatory  and  irresolute 
spirit,  which  not  only  permitted  the  union  of  widely-scat- 
tered detachments,  but  even  left  time  for  the  arrival  of  ten 
thousand  Swiss  auxiliaries.  Without  having  received  a 
single  check,  and  leading  an  army  still  double  in  number  to 
that  opposed  to  him,  so  deeply  did  Maximilian  distrust  the 
fidelity  of  his  own  Swiss  when  arrayed  against  their  coun- 


186 


TREATY  OF  NOYON. 


'> 


trymen,  so  fearfully  was  he  impressed  with  the  remem- 
brance of  their  treachery  under  similar   circumstances  to 
Lodovico  Sforza,  that  when  a  short   march    would   have 
placed    Milan   in   his   possession,    he   suddenly  fell   back 
almost  with  the  rapidity  of  flight,  secured  his  own  person 
in  Trent,  and  left  his  troops  so  ill  paid,  and  ill  provided, 
that  they,  for  the  most  part,  broke  up  and  dispersed.     His 
retreat  was  most  advantageous  to  the  Venetians  ;  Bergamo 
and  many  of  the  lesser  towns  opened  their  gates,  Brescia 
capitulated  after  a  short  resistance,  and  Verona  might  soon 
have  followed  but  for  the  languid  co-operation  of  the  French. 
The  mystery  of  their  reluctance  was  soon  explained  by  the 
announcement  of  a  negotiation   between  Francis  I.  and 
Charles  V.,  to  whom  the  crown  of  Spain  had  recently  de- 
volved by  the  death  of  Ferdinand ;  and  who,  eager  to  pass 
from  his  dominions  in  the  Netherlands  to  secure  those  in 
Castile,  spared  no  pains  to  strengthen  amicable  relations 
with  France.     By  a  treaty  sigrned  at  Noyon  on  the  13th 
of  August,  after  provisions  alfecting  the  chief  contracting 
parties,  arrangements  were  made  for   the  pacification  of 
Italy,  without  which  Francis  saw  little  hope  of  establish- 
ment in  the  Milanese,  and  Charles  despaired  of  extricating 
his  Neapolitan  territories  from  the  rival  claims  which  were 
extended  over  them.     The  King  of  France  acted  for  Ven- 
ice ;  and  the  King  of  Spain  declared,  that  unless  his  grand- 
father Maximilian  should  assent  within  two  months  to  the 
terms,  he  would  cease  to  assist  him  with  either  men  or 
money.     Verona,  by  this  treaty,  was  to  be  restored  to  Ven- 
ice ;  but  in  order  to  save  the  emperor's  honour  it  was  to  be 
surrendered  first  to  Charles,  to  be  transferred  by  him  after 
six  weeks'  occupation  to  Francis,  and  not  to  be  delivered  to 
its  ultimate  master  till  after  the  payment  of  one  hundred 
thousand  ducats.     MaximiUan  at  first  expressed  anger  and 
astonishment  at  this  unheard-of  dictation  by   an  almost 
beardless  youth  ;  and  indignantly  applied  to  England  for 
assistance  ;  offering  to  Henry  VIII.  as  the  price  of  his 
friendship,  if  he  would  defray  the  charge  of  such  an  expe- 
dition, to  open  a  passage  to  Rome  at  the  head  of  fifty  thou- 
sand men,  there  to  celebrate  his  own  coronation,  and  to 
declare  his  ally  King  of  the  Romans,  and  his  successor. 
Henry,  undeluded  by  these  magnificent  but  empty  promises, 
coldly  declined  ;  replying  that  he  was  contented  with  his 
hereditary  dominions  ;  and  Maximilian,  perceiving  his  ina- 


r-' 


STATE  OF  VENICE. 


187 


bility  to  resist  single-handed,  accepted  the  tenns,  and  rati- 
fied a  long  truce  wiih  Venice. 

Thus,  after  eight  years'  uninterrupted  struggle,  m  the 
course  of  which  at  one  time  all  had  been  lost  except  her 
insular  dominions,  Venice  emerged  from  her  mighty  dan- 
gers ;  shorn,  indeed,  of  some  of  her  more  recent  conquests, 
but  still  outwardly  powerful  and  largely  increased  in  glory. 
Her  firmness  and  her  prudence  had  saved  her  while  tot- 
terin<r  almost  on  the  verge  of  ruin,  and  never  did  she  exhibit 
herself  in  a  prouder  attitude  than  that  which  she  calmly 
maintained  under  the  heaviest  pressure  of  her  late  compli- 
cated disasters.  Over  these  she  had  at  length  triumphed  ; 
her  immediate  losses  were  Cremona,  the  borders  of  the 
Adda,  and  Romagna  ;  her  future  dangers  arose  from  the 
nei<dibourhood  of  powers  superior  to  herself,  and  from  the 
burden  of  a  national  debt,  incurred  for  the  support  of  the 
past  exhausting  war,  and  amounting  to  five  millions  of 
ducats,  a  sum  nearly  equalling  eight  millions  sterling  of 
our  present  money. 


King  of  France. 


From  Titian. 


King  of  Spain. 


188 


STATE  OF  VENICE  AT 


M 


CHAPTER  XVII. 

FROM  A.  D.   1516  TO  A.  D.   1573. 

Ner^sity  for  a  temporizing  Policv— Wars  nf  ^h^,.^^    ir 

-Peace of Cambrii-TuFkishW^r-Rern^rSr^^^  ^'•^"'^  ^'"^"'^'^  ^^ 

the  Ten  in  procuring  Peace-Tricl^prv Tf  r^ 

Thirty  Years'  P.afe-Pro<rress  of  Z   A--^^    a"'"^"  ^^ecretaries-l 

Senmll.-Fire  i"  the  ArS  at  Ve  Hce    ?el]7n  n'^r^^.^^'''^^  "^ 

scent  upon  Cyprus-Siecreand  fa  .rnrl  Lr^T        "  declares  VVar-De- 

entire  Conquest  of  C  jfus-FaU  o^BrH^i'?^ 

tween  the  Pope,  -Spain   and  yeucf-Thfon'^^^^^        ^'"^"'^^  ^e- 

atic-Don  John  of  Aus  ria  com  nands  nf.  a?"'''".^'^^'  '"  '^e  Adri- 

-inactivuy  of  the  Conr^^er^S"^:^^-^ ^^,^ 


A.  D. 


1521. 

LXXVIII. 

1524. 

LXXIX. 

1538. 

LXXX. 

1545. 

LXXXI. 

1553. 

LXXXII. 

1554. 

LXXXIII. 

1556. 

LXXXIV. 

1559. 

LXXXV. 

1567. 

LXXXVI. 

1570. 

LXXXVII. 

DOGES. 

LEOAfARDO  LoREDANO. 

Antonio  Grimani. 
Andrea  Gritti. 

PlETRO   LaNDO. 

Francesco  Donato. 
Marc'  Antonio  Trevisani. 

^RANCESCO  Veniero. 

Lorenzo  Priuli. 
Gkronimo  Priuli. 

PiKTRO  LOREDANO. 
LCIGI  MONCENJGQ. 


Notwithstanding  the  fair  onfwor^  ^ 
diminished  strength  which  Venice  for  '1!""""^'  °'"  """ 
served  after  the  rStif.eation  oHhe  treaty  ofV^"      ^^"  P'"' 
signs  of  ncipient  denav  ,„„>,»  1.  ^    '  ^"yn.  manifest 

such  eyes  a";  had  t "J  pr  ^Lt'of  X!"'  '""'T'^"'  '» 
internal  polity.     Durin.r  ,hoT^,°l  T'^  searching  her 

suryha,!  been  rep"enifh  d  fo    .r""'  ""^  <'''''»««te-l  trea- 
grading  to  hor  he  e  f>rv  Ii  r     "  '"r""'  ^^  '"<'''"«  de- 


I 


THE  PEACE  OF  NOYON. 


189 


coming  marketable,  had  in  countless  instances  been  prosti- 
tuted to  unworthy  hands  ;  and  it  was  necessary,  therelore, 
that  at  least  one  generation  should  pass  away  before  the 
state  could  regain,  if  indeed  it  ever  attained  the  power  ot 
regaining,  the  solidity  of  its  original  constitution.     In  her 
finances,  also,  it  was  no  longer  by  commerce,  the  staple  ol 
the  republic   from  her  cradle,  that  Venice  could  hope  to 
recover  her  impaired  vigour.     The  partition-wall  of  her 
monopoly  had  been  broken  down  :  the  recent  discovery  ot 
the  New  World  by  the  great  Genoese  adventurer,  and  the 
new  track  to  the  market  of  the  Old  World,  opened  by  his 
not  less  distinguished  Portuguese  rival,  havmg  transferred 
in  great  part  to  Cadiz  and  to  the  Tagus  that  tralhc  which 
had  before  centred  in  the  Lagune.     The  fury  of  war  had 
destroyed  the  manufactories  of  Venice  on  Terra  Firma ;  these 
however  might  be  re-established  during  peace  ;  but  her  salt- 
works, in  which,  from  her  very  birth,  she  had  refused  all 
partnership,  and  defied  all  competition,  were  now  shared 
by  compulsion  with  the  holy  see.     Her  argosies  might  still 
penetrate  to  the   innermost  shores  of  the  Mediterranean 
and  of  the  Euxine ;  but  Cairo  and  Alexandria,  the  empo- 
riums  of  her  carrier-trade,  had  been  won  by  the    1  urkisti 
sultan,  who  thus  intercepted  half  her  profits  by  ^iis  demand 
of  toll  and  custom  :  and  the  treasures  and  spices  ol  the  i:.ast, 
instead  of  slowly  traversing  a  vast  intermediate  continent, 
and  encountering  the  perilous  navigation  of  the  Ked  bea, 
now  found  a  surer,  quicker,  and  more  regulated  course  round 
that  cape  which,  divested  of  its  fearful  name  "  of  Storms, 
more  justly  augured  "  Good  Hope"  to  those  by  whose  per- 
severing enterprise  it  had  first  been  doubled. 

The  senate,  however,  was  zealous  in  providing  such 
remedies  for  the  national  distress  as  they  stdl  retained 
power  to  administer.  They  dedicated  themselves  steadily 
to  the  revival  of  agriculture  in  their  wasted  provinces  ;  they 
recalled  the  scattered  artisans  whom  war  had  chased  from 
their  looms  and  furnaces  ;  they  profited  by  their  recent  hard 
lessons  of  self-defence,  which  taught  how  much  the  safety 
of  their  capital  depended  upon  that  of  her  outworks,  Fadua 
and  Verona ;  and  no  labour  was  spared  to  render  those 
fortifications  impregnable  ;  and,  with  an  equally  sagacious 
recrard  to  more  peaceful  objects,  they  again  organized  m  the 
foraer  of  those  cities  its  far-famed  university,  whose  studies 


i 


190         NECESSITY  OF  TEMPORIZING  POLICY. 

had  been  suspended  during  the  last  eight  calamitous  year^. 
Wisely  indeed  did  they  act  in  once  more  inviting  its  former 
influx  of  scholars  to  be  wholesomely  disciplined  in  litera- 
ture  and  the  arts  by  "that  new  Athens,  that  ornament  of 
tne  republic,  that  commodious  resort  of  nations,"  as  it  is 
styled,  not  unaptly,  by  Paruta.* 

Still  it  was  manifest  to  her  rulers  that  without  repose  the 
very  existence  of  their  country  was  uncertain ;   that  her 
inward  wounds,  visible  to  them  alone,  but   not  on  that 
account  the   less  dangerous,   stanched,  but  by  no  means 
healed,  would  bleed  afresh,  and    perhaps  mortally,  if  she 
were  exposed  to  unseasonable   agitation;    that   her  sole 
chance  of  recovering  pristine  energy  was  to  be  found  in  a 
careful  husbandry  of  present  resources,  and  in  a  watchful 
and   severe  avoidance  of  active  warfare.     These  premises 
will  explain   the  course  trodden  by  the  repubHc  during  the 
ensumg  half-century  ;  and  will  exhibit  her  apparently  va- 
cillating policy  as  the  result  of  one  steady  principle,  which, 
If  It  did  not  succeed  in  wholly  arresting  her  decline,  at  least 
contributed  to  render  it  almost  insensible.     To  preserve 
neutrality  amid  the   contests  raging  around  was  her  first 
and  leading  object ;   and  whenever  the  rude   collision  of 
two  angry  neighbours  rendered  it  necessary  that  she  should 
either  side  with  one  or  encounter  both,  her  next  endeavour 
was  to  avoid  becoming  a  principal.     Happy  for  herself  as 
was  this  subordmate  part,  it  is  not  equally  happy  for  the 
narrator  of  her  fortunes  ;  and  the  dull  and  level  field  which 
now  begins  to  open  upon  our  view  strongly  contrasts  with 
the  rich   and  varied   country  through  which,  for  the  most 
part,  we   have  hitherto  travelled.     But  the  great  events  of 
i^uropean  story,  the  Jong,  bloody,  and  ruinous  strua^le  bv 
which  the  ambition  of  Charles  V.  and  Francis  I.  coiVrinued 
to  desolate   Italy,  the  chief  theatre  of  their  gladiatorshin, 
have  been  too  often,  too  fully,  and  too  ably  told  to  need  any 
meager   and   unsatisfactory  abridgment;    and  we   gladly 
therefore  avail  ourselves  of  our  privilege,  as  writers,  not  of 
history,  but  of  sketches  from  history,  to  hasten  on  to  matter 
tess  generally  familiar. 

Charles  V.  was  elected  emperor  in  1519,  and  in  the  very 
outset  of  his  long  rivalry  with  the  King  of  Frajice,  Venice 

*  Lib.  iv,  ap.  I^torici  Ven.  p,  287. 


WARS  OF  CHARLES  V.  AND  FRANCIS  I. 


191 


A.  D. 

1523. 


declared  in  favour  of  his   competitor.      In  two  campaigng 
the  French  lost  the    Milanese,  which   the  pope  and   the 
emperor  had   undertaken   to  conquer  for  Francesco  Maria 
Sforza,  a  brother  of  Maximilian ;  and  by  their  defeat  at 
Bicocca  they  were  wholly  expelled  from  Lombardy.     The 
consequence   of  these    events    was    the   transfer   of    the 
alliance  of  Venice  to  the  emperor,  in  spite  of  the  remon- 
strances of  Andrea  Gritti,  whose  splendid  services 
were  soon  afterward  rewarded  with  the  ducal  bonnet. 
Yet  these  services  were  of  too  elevated  a  nature  to 
be  appreciated  by  the  undistinguishing  rabble,  who  received 
with  murmurs  of  discontent  the  proclamation  of  their  new 
prince ;  by  whose  skill,  valour,  and  integrity  they  had  been 
alike  benefited,  whether  he  negotiated  while  prisoner  in  a 
foreign  realm  or  accompanied  their  armies  in  many  a  hard- 
contested   field.     Under  Gritti's  ascendant  influence,  how- 
ever, when  he  became  doge,  secret  relations  were  contracted 
anew  with  Francis,  then  on  his  advance  to  Pavia  ;  and  their 
discovery  by  Charles,  and  the  issue  of  the  memorable  p^^  gs. 
battle  under  the  walls  of  that  city,  exposed  Venice    1525, 
to  the  probable  vengeance  of  the  conqueror.   Charles, 
however,  displaying  that  unexpected  moderation  which  his 
consummate  knowledge  of  mankind  had  early  taught  him 
was  one  of  the  surest  secrets  of  dominion ;  and  which, 
therefore,  he  was  almost   always  seen  to  exercise  in  his 
seasons  of  highest  elevation  ;  listened  to  the  excuses  of  the 
Venetian  envoy  with  a  mien  of  assent ;  and  not  till  after 
his  departure  informed  the  bystanders  that  he  believed  the 
justification   to   be    false,  but   that   nevertheless   he   was 
willing  to  admit  it.*     He    then  indulged  himself  in  the 
malicious  pleasure  of  despatching  an  especial  announce- 
ment  of  his   great  triumph    to   the    anxiously    expectant 
signory  ;  and  the  envoy  arrived  at  the  chamber  of  audience 
at  the  very  moment  in  which  the  French  ambassador  was 
quitting  it,  after  receiving  a  compliment  of  condolence  on 
his  royal  master's  defeat  and  captivity.      Congratulation 
was  equally  ready  on  the  lips  of  the  doge  for  the  messenger 
of  victory  ;  and  he  excused  this  duplicity  by    an    adroit 
adoption  of  the  words  of  St.  Paul,  "  We  rejoice  with  those 
who  rejoice,  and  we  weep  with  those  who  weep." 


*  Guicciardini,  lib.  xvi.  vol.  vr.  p.  23. 


192 


TREATY   OF    COGNAC. 


'  I 


Nevertheless  it  seemed  more  politic  to  assume  at  least 
an  attitude  of  resistance  than  to  lie,  as  it  were,  prostrate 
before  Charles  ;  Und  Venice  accordingly,  having  recovered 
from  her  first  panic,  and  being  secure  of  assistance  from 
England,  Rome,  and  Florence,  became  a  party  with  those 
powers  in  the  treaty  of  Cognac,  which  openly  allied  them 
with  France.  One  strong  motive  for  the  course  now 
pursued  by  the  republic  was  the  usage  of  Francesco  Maria 
Sforza,  who  was  plainly  no  more  than  a  stalking-horse  set 
up  to  cover  the  advance  of  the  emperor's  ambition ;  the 
delay  of  his  investiture  with  his  duchy,  and  the  terms  with 
which  it  was  clogged  when  ultimately  granted,  surely 
proving  that  Charles  one  day  intended  to  appropriate  the 
rich  country  of  IVIilan  to  himself.  The  war  which  followed 
in  consequence  of  those  suspicions  was  feebly  conducted  by 
the  allies  ;  how  vigorously,  on  the  other  hand,  it  was  pressed 
by  their  enemy  the  fatal  sack  of  Rome  by  Bourbon  is 
sufficient  evidence.  Yet,  even  when  the  eternal  city  was 
ravaged  by  that  traitor's  barbarian  hordes,  and  when 
Clement  VII.,  besieged  within  the  walls  of  St.  Angelo, 
was  paralyzed  by  terror,  and  feeding  on  asses'  flesh  in  the 
extremity  of  famine,  no  serious  exertion  for  his  deliverance 
was  made  by  his  Venetian  allies.  The  Duke  d'Urbino,  to 
whose  command  their  army  was  intrusted,  and  whose  slow, 
cautious,  and  saturnine  disposition  well  adapted  him  for  the 
services  which  his  masters  required,*  did  no  more  than 
approach  within  sight  of  the  papal  castle,  in  order  to  increase 
the  despair  of  its  garrison  by  again  retreating;  and  during 
the  succeeding  campaign  he  confined  himself  for  the  most 
part  to  similar  inconclusive  demonstrations,  carefully  avoid- 
ing the  hazard  of  a  battle. 

One  incident  of  this  war  deserves  remembrance.  When 
Henry  Duke  of  Brunswick,  in  1528,  attempted  an  ill- 
supported  and  unsuccessful  diversion  in  the  Veronese,  and 
approached  the  Venetian  frontier,  he  despatched  a  cartel 
to  the  Doge  Gritti  who  had  passed  his  eightieth  year,  pro- 

*  "  Confessando  tutti  havere  la  republica  rade  volte  pir  1'  adietro 
havuto  al  governo  della  sua  militia  persona  piii  a  proposiio  per  tale 
servitio."— Paruta,  lib.  ix.  ad  fin.  This  is  part  of  the  public  historio- 
grapher's eulogy  on  the  Duke  d'Urbino  when  recounting  his  death. 
He  insinuates,  nevertheless,  that  personal  motives,  and  a  hatred  against 
the  Medici,  might  render  him  more  than  usually  tardy  in  attempting 
the  succour  of  Clement  VII. 


I  • 


PEACE    OF   CAMBRAI. 


193 


vokinff  him  to  single  combat ;  an  idle  fashion  of  bravado 
which  had  arisen  from  those  fruitful  parents  of  modern 
duelling,  the  challenges  forwarded  by  the  Kings  of  France 
and  England  to  the  emperor.*     After  ten  years'  tedious 
and  so  far  as  Venice  was  concerned,  inglorious  hostilities, 
peace  was  once  more  restored  to  Italy  by  a  treaty  signed 
at  Cambrai.     The  republic,  however,    was   not   formal  y 
included  in  that  negotiation  ;  and  Francis,  dishonourably 
abandoning  his  ally,  declared,  that  unless  she  consented  to 
surrender  to  the  emperor  the  maritime  towns  of  ^aples  m 
her  occupation,  force  of  arms  should  compel  their  cession^t 
The  King  of  France  was  represented  in  the  congress  by 
his  mother  Louise  of  Savoy ;  the  emperor  by  the  same 
aunt  Martraret  who  but  a  few  years  before  had  framed  on 
the  samelpot  the  memorable  league  which  bore  its  name  ; 
and  the  peace  is  consequently  known  m  history  as  La 
Paix   (ks   Dames.      When    Gritti  learned    the   proposals 
ofteredto  his  acceptance,  and  recalled  to  mind  themanifo  d 
ills  to  which  the  city  from  which  they  issued  had  already 
given  birth,  he  pronounced  Cambrai  to  be  the  purgatory 
of  Venice :    "  It  is  the  place,"   he  said,  "  in  which  the 
raonarchs  of  France  and  Germany  compel  our  republic  to 
expiate  the  sins  of  alliance  which  she  has  committed  with 
both  of  them."    Fortunately,  however,  the  force  of  circum- 
stances once  again  inclined  the  emperor  to   moderation. 
Solyman,  the  Turkish   sultan,   although    discomfited    for 
awhile,  was  still  in  arms,  and  not  long  smce  he  had  be- 
sieged Vienna  at  the  head  of  one  hundred  and  hfty  thousand 
men ;  the  religious  troubles  in  Germany  were  hourly  in- 
creasing; and  loud  murmurs  were  heard  from  Spain.     It 
was  the  policy  therefore  of  Charles  at  least  to  temporize  ; 
and   accordingly  he  confirmed  Sforza  in  his   duchy,  and 
granted  peace  to  Venice  ;  abandoning  to  her  all  his  con- 
quests in  Lombardy,  and  receiving  in  return  the  Neapolitan 
ports  for  himself,  and  Cervia  and  Ravenna  for  the  pope. 
This  treaty  was  ratified  at  Bologna  by  Charles  in  person, 
on  the  1st  of  January,  1530. 

*  Paruta,  vi.  p.  498.  ,.       j    «•  .v^  ^:.^^r  „«,.♦ 

t  Francis  seems  to  have  been  heartily  ashamed  of  the  dirty  part 
which  he  acted  in  this  peace,  "non  essendoal  tutto  di  atto  tanto  brutto 
senza  vergogna,  fuggi  per  qualche  di  con  van  subterfugi  i  conspetto  e 
r  2dfen/?de-ai.'lmbesciatofi  dei  Collegati,  ai  quali  poi  finalmente  udiU 
in  disparte  fece  scu8azione."-Guicciardini,  lib.  xix.  vol.  iv.  p.  J04. 

Vol.  XL— R 


i  I 


194 


FRESH    TROUBLES. 


i, 


But  the  flames   of  war  between   the  two  great  rival 
princes  were  rather  smothered  than  extinguished  by  the 
peace  of  Cambrai ;  and  after  the  lapse  of  a  very  few  years 
A.  D.     *  pretext  was  found  for  the  renewal  of  their  quarrel, 
1535.    ^"^  ^^^  another  invasion  of  Italy  by  the  French.  The 
death  of  Francesco  Maria   Sforza,  against  whom 
the  wrath  of  Francis  was  mainly  directed,  and  which  is 
attributed  by  some  authorities  to  his  consequent  terror,  left 
Milan  without  an  heir,  and  aroused  all  the  former  claimants. 
Happily  for  Italy,  the  scene  of  conflict  was  soon  transferred 
to  France  itself;  and  Venice  did  no  more  than  maintain  an 
armed  neutrality  to  which  she  was  bound  by  the  late  treaty, 
on  the  occurrence  of  any  foreign  irruption.     New  inquiet- 
udes however,  soon  awaited  her  from  more  distant  quar- 
ters.    A  secret,  and,   according  to  the  estimate   of  those 
times,    a  most    impious   and    unnatural   league,    existed 
between  Solyman  and  Francis  ;  and  the  latter,  anxious  to 
induce  the  republic  to   espouse    his   interests,    urged  his 
mfidel  ally  to  terrify  her  into  action.    Solyman  accordingly 
equipped  a  formidable  naval   force  ;  and  although  it  was 
doubtful  upon  what  enemy  his  preparations  were  directed, 
and  no  hostile  intention  against  Venice  had  been  avowed, 
prudence  manifestly  suggested  the  necessity  of  arming  in 
return.     A  casual  rencounter  at  the  mouth  of  the  Adriatic 
between  the  Turkish  and  Venetian  squadrons  led  to   an 
open  rupture  ;  and  the  Ottomans  poured  down  with  relent- 
less fury  on  Corfu.    It  was  in  vain  that  the  senate  tendered 
ample  compensation,  and  even  sent  in  chains  to  Constan- 
tinople  those   captains   to    whom    Solyman   imputed   the 
offence.     Corfu  was  mercilessly  ravaged  during  ten  days* 
occupation,  its  villages  were  burned,  its  field?  were  laid 
waste,  and  fifteen  thousand  natives  were  borne  away  into 
captivity.     Then  suddenly  and  unexpectedly  breaking  up 
from  his  first  scene  of  desolation,  the  redoubtable  Barbarossa, 
to  whom  this  ministry  of  vengeance  had  been  intrusted, 
scoured  every  island  in  the  Archipelago,  either  swayed  di- 
rectly by  Venice  herself,  or  held  in  fee  from  the  republic  by 
any  of  her  nobles.     •*  Nevertheless,"  observes  Paruta,  "  so 
miserable  were  the  times,  that  the  abandonment  of  Corfu 
by  the  enemy  who  had  ruined  it  was  esteemed  a  triumph ; 
not  to  be  utterly  destroyed  by  them  was  thought  a  victory.* 


quos  opimus 


Faller*  «t  eflUoero  e«t  triumphus 


REMARKABLE  NEGOTIATION   BY  THE  TEN.    195 

Thanksgivings  for  this  fortunate  event  were  offered  up  in 
Venice  •  solemn  processions  were  made  through  the  streets  ; 
masses  'were  celebrated  in  all  the  churches  ;  and  alms  were 
copiously  distributed  to  the  poor."*  No  further  proofs 
need  be  required  of  consciousness  of  decline. 

Meantime  Charles   and  Francis    had   been    once   again 
reconciled  ;    and,  in  the  commencement  of  the  following 
year,  the  pope   and  the    emperor   associated  with      ^  ^^ 
Venice  in  an  alliance  oflensive  and  defensive  against    j^gg^ 
the  Turks.    In  the  termination  of  that  contest  which 
was   languidly   conducted,   one   of   the   most   remarkable 
anomalie?  in  the  Venetian  constitution  was  exhibited  m 
Btrona  light.     The    ambassador  despatched  to  Constanti- 
nople'for  the  public  negotiation  of  peace,  th^  terms  of  which 
had,  during  many  months,  been  privately  discussed  through 
the  medium  of  a  bastard  of  the  doge  well  versed  m  oriental 

politics,  was  instructed  by  the  s^^/te/o^T  I    /".In 
first  instance  for  the  restoration  of  all  the  Turkish  con- 
quests.     If  he  found  that   proposal  inadmissible,  he  was 
then  permitted  to  offer  a  tribute  of  six  thousand  ducats  for 
MalvasiaandNapolidiRomagna;  and  to  promise  a  yet 
further  payment  of  three  hundred  thousand  more  as  an 
indemnity  'for  the  expenses  of  the  war.     But  this  was  not 
the  sole  condition  with  which  the  envoy  departed.      1  he 
Ten,  without  communication  with  any  other  branch  of  the 
government,  secretly  authorized  him  by  the  fullest  powers 
to  conclude  peace,  if  it  were  not  otherwise  to  be  obtained, 
even  by  the  cession  of  the  two  important  towns  just  named  ; 
wisely  deeming  that  the  surrender  of  those  distant  posts 
always  at  the  mercy  of  the  enemy,  although  a  large,  was 
not  an  exorbitant  price  for  the  conclusion  of  a  very  dan- 
gerous  war.      Badoaro  the  ambassador  msisted  strongly 
with  the  vizier  on  his  first  proposal,  and  was  surprised  at 
the  pertinacity  of  refusal  which  it  encountered.     Not  even 
a  modification  of  it  was  admitted,  and  peace,  it  was  said, 
should  be   granted  only  on  the  abandonment   of  certain 
fortresses  in  Dalmatia,  of  all  the  islands  recently  surrendered 
in  the  Archipelago,  and  of  Malvasia  and  Napoli;  besides 
the  payment  of  the  offered  indemnity.    Hard  as  were  these 
conditions,  Badoaro  eventually  accepted  them  ;  and  j^^^  gS, 
Gritti,  who  expired  in  his  84th  year,  a  few  months    1538. 
before  the  conclusion  of  this  unequal  treaty,  waa 

*  Lib.  viii.  p.  706. 


196 


VENETIAN   SECRETARIES. 


THIRTY  years'  PEACE. 


197 


r 


■I 


I] 


spared  the  mortification  of  ratifying  it,  and  of  finding  ono 
of  his  latest  acts  discordant  from  a  whole  life  of  glory. 

The  announcement  of  these   terms,  however  desirable 
was  the  accommodation  itself,  excited  no  small  astonish- 
mei\t  in  Venice,  where  nothing  was  as  yet  known  beyond 
the  declared  intentions  of  the  senate.     National  pride  was 
offended  at  the  cessions  :  the   money   paid,  it   was  said, 
might  have  been  far  better  employed  in  a  vigorous  prose- 
cution of  war,  and  the  want  of  skill  or  of  courage  in  the 
ambassador  was   vehemently   condemned, — till    the    Ten 
openly  avowed  their  own  act.     On  the  moment,  as  by  a 
touch,  public  opinion  changed,  the  first  emotions  of  disgust 
subsided,   and   on    deeper    consideration  and    after   more 
correct  reasoning,  men,  we  are   told,  were  satisfied,  or  at 
least  silent ;  and  all  concurred  in  extolling  the  prudence 
of  these   wise   counsellors    ever   watchful  over  the  true 
interests   of  the  republic*      Nevertheless,  even  the  Ten 
themselves  and  the  new   doge    Pietro  Lando,    although 
from  the  beginning  fully  cognizant  of  the  diplomatic  mys- 
tery, were  surprised  at  the  unbending  opposition  maintained 
by  the  Turkish  negotiators  ;  and  it  was  not  long  before  the 
treachery  which  had   guided  them  was  brought  to  light. 
Nicolo   Cavazza,t   a  secretary   of  the    Ten,  and  Maffeo 
Leone  who  filled  the  like  office  to  the  senate,  had  betrayed 
the  secrets  of  their  respective  councils  to  some  nobles  in 
the  pay  of  the  court  of  France  ;  by  which  cabinet  in  turn 
they  had  been  revealed  to  the  divan.     An  intrigue  between 
the  wife  of  one  of  the  traitors  and  a  grave  senator  acci- 
dentally threw  some  papers  developing  this  foul  transaction 
into  the  hands  of  the  latter,  who  immediately  denounced 
the  criminals  and  their  agents.     Three  of  them  claimed 
and  received  asylum  in  the  palace  of  the  French  ambassa- 
dor ;    but  the  Ten,  undeterred   by   that   high   protection, 
demanded  the  fugitives,  and  upon  refusal,  planted  cannon 
before  the  gates  of  the  palace,  and  threatened  to  batter 
them  down  if  they  were  any  longer  closed  against  the 

*  Paruta,  lib.  x.  p.  1 15. 

t  On  the  appointment  of  this  Oavazza,  whom  Palatius  names  Con- 
stantino, the  Doge  Gritti  prophetically  remarked  thai  the  Ten,  by  their 
selection,  had  slipped  the  new  secretary's  neck  into  a  halter.  "  Hoc 
namque  decreto  lacjueum  video  collo  appensum  Cawacc®."— Fasti 
Ducales,  p.  200. 


i 


if 


©fficers   of  justice.      The  menace   produced  the   desired 
effect,  and  the  malefactors  were  surrendered  and  executed  ; 
not  without  some  expression  of  resentment  on  the  part 
of   Francis,   who    for    many   months    afterward    refused 
audience  to  Antonio  Veniero,  the  Venetian  ambassador  at 
his  court.     One  day,  however,  the  king,  while  m  his  camp 
at  Perpitrnan,  being  desirous  to  learn  news  from  Turkey, 
sent  for  "the  minister  ;  and  having  complained  in  gentle 
terms  of  the  recent  violation  of  diplomatic  privileges,  he 
asked  what  the  ambassador  would  have  thought  if  similar 
force  had  been  employed  against  himself]    Veniero's  reply 
was  prompt  and  dignified:    "God  knows,  sire,  that  if  I 
had  in  my  palace  and  my  power  any  traitors  against  your 
majesty,  I  would  myself  arrest  and  deliver  them  into  your 
majesty's   hands;    being   well    assured,    that   if    I    acted 
otherwise  I   should  be  most  severely  reprehended  by  my 

masters  the  signory." 

The  prudence  of  the  Venetian  government  secured  tran- 
quillity to  the  republic  during  the  next  thirty  years ;  the 
course  of  which  swept  away  the  chief  great  actors  m  the 
political  drama  of  the  times.     The  death  of  Francis  I.  could 
occasion  little  regret  among  those  to  whom  he  had  proved 
bv  turns  a  vigorous  enemy  or  an  inconstant  and  ungrateiul 
ally ;  but  the  loss  of  Henry  VIII.  appears  to  have  been 
deeply  lamented.     Little  interested,  on  account  of  the  re- 
moteness  of  his  dominions,  in  the  general  affairs  ot  Italy, 
but  keenly  alive  to  the  mutual  advantages  of  commercial 
intercourse,  that  monarch  had  encouraged  an  intimate  con- 
nexion with  Venice.     To  many  of  her  nobles  he  was  per- 
sonally attached,  bestowing  upon  them  his  confidence,  and 
employing  them  in  difticult  negotiations ;  and  to  the  state 
herself  he  testified  the  sincerity  of  his  regard  in  some  of 
her  most  hazardous  crises.     Paruta,  from  whom  we  derive 
this  information,  displays  an  intimate  knowledge  of  the 
fickleness  which  marked  the  latter  years  of  Henry's  tyran- 
nical career,  when  he  adds  that  "  becoming  difterent  from 
himself,  he  changed  his  thoughts  and  inclinations  m  this  par- 
ticular also,  and  sometimes  showed  but  little  friendliness.  * 
The  season  of  repose  which  ensued  proved  highly  favour- 
able to  the  cultivation  of  the  arts.     Palladio  and  Scamoizi 

*  Lib.  xl.  p.  195. 
R2 


198 


PROGRESS   OF   THE  ARTS. 


TITIAN. 


lyy 


;ii 


I 


M 


adorned  the  capital  with  rich  and  imposing  architecture ; 
the  Florentine  Sansovino  erected  the  Mint,  the  Library  of 
St.  Mark,  and  the  Procuratie  Nuove,  and  sculptured  those 
noble  statues  of  Mars  and  Neptune,  emblems  of  the  mili- 
tary and  naval  power  of  Venice,*  which  still  guard  the 
Giant's  Stairs.     The  glory  also  of  the  Venetian  school  of 
colouring  was  brought  to  its  height  by  the  pencils  of  Titian, 
Tintoretto,  and  Paolo  Veronese.     To  them  was  intrusted 
the  design  and  execution  of  that  first  brilliant  series  of  his- 
torical pictures  which  encircled  the  hall  of  the  Great  Coun- 
cil ;  all  of  which,  says  the  precise  and  not  very  fervid  Jus- 
tiniani,  those  most  diligent  painterst  brought  to  conclusion. 
The  reward  of  Titian  was  an  appointment  to  the  office 
of  La  Senseria  (brokerage)  in  the  Fondaca  de*  Tcdeschi  ;X 
the  street  front  of  which  building  had  already  been  painted 
in  fresco  by  his  own  hand,  as  had  the  water-fa9ade  by  that 
of  Giorgione.     In  a  truly  mercantile  spirit,  the  patent  by 
which  this  not  very  lucrative   post  was  held   (its  salary 
amounted  but  to  300  crowns,  and  its  duties  must  have  been 
not  less  alien  from  the  pursuits  of  Titian  than  those  of  an 
exciseman  were  from  the  spirit  of  Burns)  bound  him  to 
paint  every  doge  who  succeeded  during  his  lifetime,  for  eight 
crowns  a  head  ;  to  be  paid  by  the  doge  himself.     To  this  no- 
table agreement  we  are  indebted  for  portraits  of  Pietro 
Lando,  Francesco  Donato  (1545),  Marc' Antonio  Trevi- 
SANo  (1653),  and  Francesco  Veniero  (1554).      On  the  ac- 
cession of  Lorenzo  Priuli  in  1556,  Titian,  then  in  his  79th 
year,  discontinued  his  task ;  nevertheless,  he  survived  twenty 
years  longer,  painted  many  other  pictures,  and  even  at  last 
fell  a  victim,  not  to  any  ordinary  disorder,  but  to  the  plague. 
Venice  has  ever  exhibited  nice  sensibility  to  the  merits 
of  this  her  most  consummate  artist.     Even  in  his  lifetime, 

*  Maiirocenus,  Hist.  Ven.  lib.  x.  apiid  Tst.  Venez.  vi.  p.  229. 

t  Ddigentissimi  Pictores.  lib.  xv.  p.  406. 

;  This  building,  which  stood  on  the  Canale  Grande,  near  the  Rialto, 
was  oripnally  the  residence  of  the  eignory  ;  was  afterward  granted  as 
a  oommercial  depot  to  German  merchants,  whence  it  takes  its  name  • 
and  18  now  used  as  a  cuBiom-house.  The  original  mansion  was  de^ 
stroyed  m  the  great  fire  of  1514,  and  it  was  on  its  rebuilding  that  Giorgi- 
one and  Titian  painted  the  exterior ;  and  the  former,  jealous  of  the  praise 
Destowed  upon  his  pupil,  renounced  all  intercourse  with  him  The  Do- 
gana  di  Mare,  another  custom-house  for  transit  goods,  is  from  many 
points  one  of  the  most  picturesque  objects  in  Venice. 


f 


•a  season  at  which  gratitude  is  often  wanting  to  desert,  whe'i 
in  1535  the  republic  .was  arming  against  the  Turks,  and  a 
poll-tax  was  levied  upon  her  citizens  for  the  replenishment 
of  the  treasury,  by  an  edict  not  less  honourable  to  herself 
than  to  the  individuals  whom  it  concerned,  special  exceptions 
were  made  in  favour  of  "Titiano  Vecelli  and  Giacopo  San- 
sovino, on  account  of  their  rare  excellence."     When  on 
another  occasion  the  fraternity  of  8S.  Giovamii  e  Paolo  had 
scld  a  chef-d'ceuvre  of  the  great  painter,  "  The  Martyrdom 
of  St.  Peter,"  for  eighteen  thousand  crowns,  the  ready  arm 
of  the  Ten  interposed,  annulled  the  bargain  on  pain  of 
death,  and  retained  the  picture  in  the  church  which  it  still 
adorns.*     Yet  notwithstanding  the  just  and  exalted  esti- 
mate of  the  powers  of  Titian,  he  still  remains  without  any 
firther  monument  than  that  afforded  by  his  own  immortal 
wt.rks,  and  the  simple  but  impressive   gravestone  m  the 
-cliarch  de'  Frari,    Qui  giace  il  gran    TizianoA     Canova 
inleed,  after  the  lapse  of  more  than  two  centuries,  was  in- 
^mcted  to  prepare  a  tomb  in  1792  ;  but  although  the  beau- 
ties which  his  unrivalled  chisel  might  have  struck  out  at 
tb;  moment  of  birth  would  perhaps  have  redeemed  any 
original  sin  of  conception,  few  of  his  groups  are  more 
lieble  to  the  charge  of  poverty  and  coldness  of  invention 
than  that  which  he  then  designed.     The  open  gate  of  a  se- 
ptlchral  pyramid  is  entered  by  Painting  veiled  in  token  ol 
grief,  and  by  her  side  stands  an  angel,  supporting  her  attri- 
bttes.     Behind,  on  a  lower  step,  are  placed  Sculpture ^nd 
Architecture,  with  their  emblems  less  carefully  strewed  on 
tte  ground  ;  and  the  opposite  side  of  the  door  is  sentinellecl 
b«  a  mourning  Lion,  allegorical,  as  it  is  stated,  of  the  Ve- 
netian school !    Above  the  ported,  two  Genii  held  a  medal- 
lion of  Titian.     The  subscription  raised  for  the  completion 

♦  At  that  splendid  but  meretricious  altar  in  SS.  Giovanni  e  Paolo,  Xhe 
second  on  the  left,  af\er  entering  from  the  great  porch. 

t  We  believe  this  was  the  origuial  inscription,  more  striking  than  even 
ourown  similar  epitaph, "  O  rare  Ben  Jonson."  We  well  remember  the 
Impio^sion  made  by  those  few  pointed  words  on  the  late  Emimror  Alex- 
ander, when  he  visited  Westminster  Abbey ;  and  the  emphasis  with 
whicb  he  repeated  and  explained  them  (giving  full  enunciaiion  to  tne 
final  «,)  to  his  sister  the  Dutchess  of  Oldenburgh,  who  was  Ha"g'f^g  ^ 
his  ann.  The  later  Venetians  have  substituted  a  jingling  distich,  whica 
iias  destroyed  all  the  majesty  of  the  inscription,  and  it  now  runs, 
"  Qui  giace  Tiziano  Vecelli, 
Emtilo  di  Zeuse  e  d'  Apelle.*» 


200       canova's  monument  for  titian. 


i: 


I 


w 


of  this  monument  proved  insufficient;  and  the  sculptor, 
unwilling  to  lose  his  labour,  by  a  few  dexterous  alterations 
converted  the  model  to  the  use  of  a  deceased  Austrian 
archduchess,  Christina,  consort  of  Duke  Albert  of  Saxe- 
Teschen,  in  the  church  of  the  Augustines  at  Vienna.  The 
colossal  dimensions  were  reduced  ;  Paintings  by  the  removal 
of  her  veil  and  the  addition  of  a  cinerary  urn  in  her  hands, 
readily  became  Virtue;  Innocence  and  Piety  supplied  thj 
vacant  places  of  Sculpture  and  ArckitecturCy  and  Charity  fo - 
lows  them,  leading  an  old  man,  and  supporting  an  orphan  ; 
the  Lion,  adhering  with  no  less  pertinacity  than  if  he  haJ 
been  of  British  breed,  remained  as  the  guardian  of  tie 
tomb ;  himself  guarded  by  a  keeper  genius,  emblematic^, 
as  is  said,  of  Gncf ;  and  the  other  twin  genii  supportirg 
the  medallion  were  transformed  into  Felicity  and  an  an^I- 
with  a  palm  branch.  Notwithstanding  this  appropriation 
to  another  purpose,  the  design,  since  Canova's  death, 
has  been  chosen  to  record  his  own  excellence  ;  the  original 
cast  of  character  has  been  restored,  and  the  monumeit, 
almost  as  at  first  projected,  now  covers  some  of  the  remaiis 
of  the  great  sculptor*  m  the  same  church  de'  Frari  withn 
which  Titian  himself  is  interred. 

Together  with  the  cultivation  of  the  arts  during  this  ui- 
wonted  period  of  tranquillity,  the  Venetians  frequently  ii- 
dulged  their  love  of  public  spectacles  and  brilliant  pageants. 

One  of  those  exhibitions,  on  the  marriage  of  Zika 
Sept.  18,  X)andola  with  the  Doge  Lorenzo  Priuli,  is  describid 

at  much  length  by  Sansovino ;  and  it  presents  a  sb- 
gular  mixture  of  splendour  and  rudeness.  After  enum;- 
rating  the  triumphal  arches  and  tapestried  streets  through 
which  the  bride  was  conducted  from  her  father's  palace  .o 
grace  a  regattaf  with  her  presence,  we  are  told  that  on  h«r 

*  We  are  not  quite  certain  on  this  point ;  the  monument  may  he  zVxf<- 
gether  a  cenotaph.  The  eniliusiasm  of  the  Italians  dismembered  ;he 
remains  of  Canova  after  a  manner  which,  to  colder  English  feeliigs, 
appears  fantastical  if  not  disjrespectful.  The  body  lies  iii  a  church  de- 
signed  by  himself  at  Possongo;  the  head  is  preserved  in  a  vase  ii  the 
hall  of  the  Venetian  Academy  of  Fine  Arts ;  and  the  right  hand  is  ex 
hibited  in  the  same  place  also,  with  an  inscription  marked  by  concat  and 
vapid  sentimentality  ;  "  Quod  mutui  amoris  monvmientum  idem  jloriaa 
incitamentum  siet." 

t  A  regatta  was  a  splendid  rowing  match  on  the  Cande  Grcnde,  in 
which  prizes  were  distributed  from  a  temjwrary  building  on  the  water. 
A  good  account  of  such  a  feauvity  is  given  by  Ant.  de  Ville,  m  Burmauu' 
et  Grasvii  Thesaurus  Italicus  v.  pars  poster oir. 


202 


AMBITION   OF    SELiM  H. 


MARRUGE    OF    ZILIA    DANDOLA. 


20l 


i    1 


subsequent  arrival  at  St.  Mark's,  there  were  shot  off  so 
many  and  so  loud  volleys  of  artillery  from  the  neighbouring 
nvi  that  "  it  was  a  sound  horrible  to  the  ear."     The  great 
nortals  of  the  cathedral  were  partially  shut,  in  order  that 
the  populace,  by  entermg  more  slowly,  might  escape  bemg 
trampled  to  death  and  suffocated ;  yet  their  pressure  was 
so  excessive  when  once  admitted,  and  their  clamour  so 
deafening,  that  after  the  princess  had  taken  the  customary 
oaths  at  the  high  altar,  not  a  syllable  of  a  speech  addressed 
to  her  by  a  cavaliere  of  the  doge  could  be  understood.     On 
quitting  the  church,  and  proceeding  to  the  ducal  palace,  she 
Cnd   the   state-apartments  occupied   by  the   trades   and 
guiWs  of  the  city,  each  of  which  invited  the  bnde  to  par- 
tike  of  a  rich  collation  provided  at  the  expense  and  by 
order  of  the  doge ;  and  each  in  turn  received  a  similar 
^swer  of  thankl  and  a  similar  excuse,  both  on  account 
of  fatiaue  and  of  the  necessity  of  passing  onward  to  the 
next  compai^y.     The  evening  concluded  with  a  protracted 
display  ot- fireworks  in  the  palace  court,  followed  by  a  .up- 
per and  a  ball,  which  detained  the  guests  till  dawn  ;  and 
File  festivities  were  continued  during  three  «u<^<^-^»;g/f -^^^i 
one  of  which  was  dedicated  to  the  gentle  past  me  of  bull- 
baitinlTor  the  satisfaction  of  the  newly  married  princess 
and  her  attendant  ladies.*     This  extraordinary  rejoicing 
seems  to  have  been  elicited  by  the  rarity  of  a  dogaressa 
for,  striae  as  it  may  appear,  a  hundred  years  had  passed 
since  aTy%rince  had  shared  his  dignity  with  a  consort. 
zL  on  he?  death  received  scarcely  less  distinguished  hon- 
ours than  on  her  nuptials  ;  her  body,  habited  in  the  regalia 
?ay  during  three  days  in  magnificent  state ;  and  was  then 
followed  to  the  tomb  by  the  reignmg  doge  and  all  the  pub- 

'"  "crel'of  perU  and  disaster,  however,  were  ere  long 
to  intrrrupt  all  peaceful  revelries.  Since  the  short  war  with 
TurkevTn  153S,  amicable  relations  had  bee^i  steaddy  main- 
tabed  with  that  dangerous  power,  whose  strength  mean- 

*  Of  thA  fudvoes  of  artiUery,  Sansovino  expresses  himself,  "si  spa- 

^Venet.  descritta,  lib.  x. 
t  P.  Justiaiaai,  Ub.  xiv.  p.  390,  and  xv.  423. 


SELIM  COVETS  CYPRUS. 


203 


2t)2 


AMBITION   OF    SELiM  II. 


SELIM    COVETS    CYPRUS. 


203 


M 


time  was  continually  progressive.     But  Selim  II., 
ISfifi     ^"  ^^^  accession  to  the  throne  of  his  father  Solyman, 
early  manifested  inclination  to  break  the  subsisting 
alliance,  and  assiduously  and  perversely  sought  causes  of 
offence  against  Venice.     The  ambition  of  a  youthful  despot 
is  little  likely  to  be  checked  by  the  ready  flatterers  who 
surround  his  throne  ;  and  we  are  told  that  powerful  motives 
of  religious  zeal  yet  further  inflamed  the  passion  for  mili- 
tary  glory   which    Selim   displayed.     A   superb   mosque, 
which  he  had  erected  at  Adrianople,  required  funds  for  its 
endowment ;  and  the  muftis  assured  its  impetuous  founder 
that  no  revenues  could  be  dedicated  to  support  the  charita- 
ble institutions  annexed  to  it,  excepting  such  as  should  be 
won  at  the  sword's  point ;    and  that  the  oflerings  most 
grateful  to  the  prophet  were  those  wrested  from  the  enemies 
of  his  faith  ;  "  a  devilish  persuasion,"  as  an  old  and  very 
agreeable  author  justly  styles  it,  "  which  serveth  as  a  spur 
to  prick  forward  every  of  those  ambitious  Princes  to  adde 
something  to  their  Empire."*     A  spirit  thus  kindled  readily 
created  to  itself  a  direct  object  of  pursuit ;  and  in  his  choice 
the   sultan  was  guided  by  the  accidental   circumstances 
under  which  his  youth  had  been  passed.     During  his  father's 
lifetime,  the  customary  policy  of  oriental  governments  had 
removed  the  heir-apparent  from  the  court  of  his  birth  ;  and 
by  long  residence  in  a  district  in  the  neighbourhood  of  Cy- 
prus,! he  had  become  well  acquainted  with  both  the  wealth 
and  the  weakness  of  that  island  ;  the  fertility  of  the  soil ; 
the  riches  of  the  nobles ;  the  inadequacy  of  its  defences  ; 
and  the  careless  security,  no  less  than  the  unpopularity,  of 
its  Venetian  masters.     Such  allurements  might  of  them- 
selves have  sufficed  to  create  a  strong  desire  for  the  pos- 
session of  that  delicious  country  ;  and  to  these  were  added 
others  of  not  inferior  power.     It  was  galling  to  the  pride 
of  the  Ottomans  that  strangers  from  a  remote  state  should 
be  lords  of  the  choicest  gem  of  their  own  peculiar  seas ; 

*  Knolles,  Historie  of  the  Thirks,  p.  839. 

t  Nella  Provincin  di  Magnesia,  is  Paruta's  statement,^!,  p.  12.  But  Pa- 
nita  understood  history  beUer  than  geography.  The  provinre  of  Mag- 
nesia wa.s  in  Northern  Greece  to  ihe  south  of  Thessaly.  The  city  at 
which  Selim  resided  was  the  beautiful  Magvesia  ad  Sipylum,  still  re- 
taining its  ancient  name  among  ihe  Greeks  and  European  residents,  and 
only  slightly  corrupted  by  the  Turks  into  Magnis4.  Its  vicinity  to 
Smyrna  rendered  commimication  with  Cyprus  very  easy. 


the  harbours  of  Cyprus  furnished  a  secure  retreat  for  the 
pirates  who  infested  the  Turkish  navigation  ;  and  not  a  sail 
could  pass  from  Syria  to  Constantinople  without  exposure 
to  the  Christian  cannon  at  Famagosta.     Yet  another  mo- 
tive has  been  ascribed  to  Selim,  by  writers  of  good  authority. 
The  habits  of  that  prince  were  stained  with  most  gross 
licentiousness  ;  and  in  spite  of  the   sober  precepts  of  the 
Koran,  he  indulged  to  excess  in  his  favourite  draughts  of 
the  rich  wines  for  which  Cyprus  is   distinguished.     "  I 
would  rather  press  this  luscious  juice  than  purchase  it,"  was 
his  frequent  remark,  as  he  passed  the  goblet  to  Miches,  a 
vagabond  Portuguese,  who  had  won  his  confidence  partly 
by\ssociation  in  debauchery,  partly  by  a  double  apostacy  ; 
first   from   Judaism,   afterward    from   Christianity.     This 
dmnken  fancy  was  encouraged  by  his  dissolute  companion  ; 
till  on  one  occasion  the  prince  swore  by  his  prophet,  that 
whenever  he  himself  swayed  Constantinople  his  minion 
should  be  king  of  Cyprus.     The  promise  so  far  elated  Mi- 
ches  that   he   decorated  his  portrait  with  a  crown,  and 
painted  under  it  the  legend  Joscphiis  Rex  Ci/pri.     Voltaire 
ridicules  this  story  bitterly,  and,  as  it  seems  to  us,  without 
reason.     No  monarch,  he  says,  ever  yet  conquered  a  king- 
dom for  the  sake  of  a  Jew,  or  of  a  cup  of  wine.*     Perhaps 
so,  but  how  many  great  events  assail  us  from  every  page 
of  history,  the  secret  springs  of  which  may  be   found   in 
causes  scarcely  less  frivolous  and  unimportant  than  those 
which  are  here  rejected. 

Fired  with  the  bright  hope  of  this  conquest,  Selim  com- 
municated his  project  to  the  divan,  in  which  it  encountered 
a  diversity  of  opinion.  The  vizier,  Mohammed  Pacha, 
strenuously  combated  the  design  ;  urging,  that  if  the  Turks 
should  unsheath  the  sword,  glory,  policy,  and  religion 
alike  pointed  to  the  relief  of  the  Moors  in  Grenada,  as  their 
paramount  duty.  On  the  other  hand,  the  leaders  of  an  op- 
posite faction,  Mustapha  Pacha,  and  Piali,  a  Hungarian 
renegade,  supported  the  views  of  their  prince ;  both  from 
private  enmity  against  the  vizier,  and  from  a  natural  belief 

*  Essni  sur  les  Mcenrs,  clix.  Among  other  vouchers  for  the  anec- 
dote of  Selim  and  Miches  are  Ubertus  Folieta,  i.  ap  Gravii  Thesaur. 
vol.  i.  p.  ii.  p.  947,  and  Arrighi  de  Bell.  Cyp.  i.  p.  x.  The  words  given 
by  the  latter  writer  to  the  pnnce  are  "  Nolle  se  vinum  emere,  sed  expri- 
mere."    Morosiai  writes,  "  Hoc  in  Cypro  vitium  potabimus."  ix.  p.  359. 


'\ 


204 


FIRE   IN    THE    ARSENAL. 


that  by  so  doing  they  should  advance  their  own  interestff, 
Selim,  perhaps,  might  long  have  hesitated  between  thesw 
conflicting  opinions,  if  intelligence  had  not  reached  him  of 
great  internal  disasters  to  v^'hich  Venice  had  recently  been 
A.  D.     ^^po^ed.      The  failure  of  a  harvest  had  produced 
1669.    ^*^^fci^y  ii^  t^he  Dogado  and  its  adjoining  provinces, 
so  that,  far  from  being  able  to  support  her  customary 
armed  force,  the  republic  laboured  inelTectually  to  maintain 
her  own  population.    To  that  misfortune  was  added  another, 
which  threatened  yet  more  lasting  injury.     A  fire,  kindled 
by  some  unknown  cause  in  the  arsenal,  communicated 
Sept.  13.  with  its  magazines  ;  and  the  citizens  were  aroused 
at   midnight   by  an   explosion   heard   thirty   miles 
around,*  the  thunders  of  which  seemed  to  announce  to 
many  terror-stricken  slumberers  startled  from  their  first  re- 
pose, that  the  grand  consummation  of  all  things  was  be- 
ginning.!    The  walls,  roofs,  and  towers  of  the  arsenal 
were  blown  to  atoms ;  four  churches,  and  numerous  build- 
ings in  the  immediate  neighbourhood,  were  shattered  and^ 
thrown  down  ;  and  even  the  remoter  parts  of  the  city  were 
agitated  so  powerfully  that  it  is  believed,  if  large' stores 
of  powder  had  not  been  conveyed  a  few  days  beforehand  to- 
other depots   in  the  surrounding  islands,   Venice   would 
have  been  ingulfed  as  by  an  earthquake.     In  consequence 
of  that  fortunate  removal,  the  loss  of  lives  was  compara- 
tively trifling ;  and  of  the  shipping,  which  must  otherwise 
have  been  totally  destroyed,  not  more  than  four  galleys 
were  rendered  unserviceable  by  the  fall  of  the  covered  docks 
under  which  they  were  lying.     Report,  however,  conveyed 
the  news  of  this  misfortune  to  Constantinople  with  its 
wonted  exaggeration.     ^-*  only  was  Venice  wasted  by  a 
still  increasing  famine,  but  her  whole  navy,  it  was  said,  had 
penshed  at  a  blow.     Selim  and  the  war- faction  eagerly 
propagated  this  rumour ;  military  preparations,  on  a  most 
A.  D.     ^^^^"sive  scale,  were  zealously  commenced  ;  and, 
1570.    ^^^'^  '^  ^^^  following  year,  an  embassy  was  des- 
*    patched  to  the  signory,  openly  demanding  the  abso- 
lute surrender  of  Cyprus. 

S  V  F«.f   n  ...?"S"^'  V^'"""^'^  "sque  strepitus  insonuerit.-Pala- 
Zm*  Fasu  Ducales  Adnotat.  p.  355,  from  Manolesso. 

«imfta'i«"?nTJLip'i?  ^*°'*^'"  da  8uono cosi  inusitato, si  crederono  eesere 
«iunta  la  fine  dell'  Universo.— Parura,  i.  p.  23. 


REJECTION   OF   SELIM's   DEMAND. 


\ 


205 


The  pretext  advanced  for  this  haughty  summons  was  the 
refuge  afforded  by  the  insular  authorities  to  pirates ;  the 
chief  arguments  urged  to  procure  compliance  were  fierce 
menaces  of  vengeance  on  refusal.     "  We  demand  Cyprus," 
said  the  chiaus,  in  his  address  to  the  senate,  "  which  we 
will  obtain,  if  not  by  good-will,  most  assuredly  by  force. 
Look  well  that  you  draw  not  our  fearful  sword  from  its 
scabbard  ;  for  if  it  be  once  bared,  it  shall  carry  war  to  the 
uttermost  into  each  of  your  provinces  :  and  place  not  reli- 
ance on  your  treasure,  for  we  will  drain  it  from  your  coffers 
with  the  fury  of  a  torrent !"     To  this  proud  and  swelling 
denunciation  the  council  replied  with  dignity,  by  expressions 
of  surprise  that  Selim  should  thus  early  violate  his  pledges 
of  amity,  and  that  he  should  require  the  cession  of  a  king- 
dom to  which  he  had  no  pretence,  and  which  had  been  so 
long  swayed  by  the  republic.     Venice,  it  was  added,  would 
never  be  wanting   to  the    protection  of  her  rightful  do- 
minions;  and  "she  accepted  the  challenge  now  tendered, 
with  unshrinking  confidence  that  the  justice  of  her  cause 
must  obtain  assistance  both  human  and  divine,  and  must 
ultimately  ensure  her  triumph." 

The  first  care  of  the  senate,  in  order  to  meet  the  ap- 
proaching danger,  was  to  accumulate  treasure  ;  and,  partly 
by  loan,  partly  by  voluntary  contributions,  partly  by  once 
more  setting  a  price  on  state  offices  and  exposing  them  to 
sale,  the  sums  requisite  for  defence  were  procured.     The 
last-named  disgraceful  and  impolitic  expedient  extended  the 
number  of  procuratori,  the  second  dignity  in  the  republic, 
to  every  purchaser  who  could  deposite  twenty  thousand 
ducats  in  the  exchequer ;  and  the  payment  of  another  cer- 
tain stipulated  sum   admitted  the  patrician  youth  to  the 
full  privileges  of  the  council,  before  the  attainment  of  legal 
majority.     In  the  formation  of  a  league  against  the  infidels, 
the  senate  was  by  no  means  equally  successful :  France 
was  destitute  of  a  marine,  and  had  become  a  prey  to  civil 
dissensions ;    the  emperor  had  but  recently  concluded  a 
treaty  with  the  Porte;  the  joint  efforts  of  the  pope,  of 
Genoa,  and  of  the  knights  of  Malta  could  add  no  more  than 
six  galleys  to  co-operate  with  the  Venetian  fleet ;  and  even 
when  Philip  II.  of  Spain,  during  the  lingering  progress  of 
negotiation,  allowed  a  provisional  force  of  sixty  sail  to  pro- 
ceed to  Messina,  it  was  doubtful  whether  they  would  ever 
Vol.  II.~S 


\' 


V 


306 


THE  TURKS  LAND  IN  CYPRUS. 


be  permitted  to  afford  more  than  nominal  assistance.  Thus 
scantily  provided,  the  doge,  Luigi  Moncenigo,  but  a  few 
months  after  his  election,  received  intelligence  that  the 
Turks  had  made  a  descent  on  Cyprus. 

It  was  on  the  1st  of  July  that  Mustapha  Pacha,  anchor- 
ing at  Limaso,  near  the  ancient  Paphos,  poured  forth,  from 
one  hundred  palunders  and  one  hundred  and  fifty  ships  of 
war,  a  huge  armament,  amounting  at  the  lowest  estimate 
to  fifty-five  thousand  fighting  men,  supported  by  a  formida- 
ble train  of  artillery ;  to  oppose  which  force  the  garrison  of 
the  island  presented  but  five  hundred  Stradiots,  and  rather 
more  than  one  hundred  native  horse,  three  thousand  regu- 
lar infantry,  of  whom  only  two-thirds  were  serviceable,  and 
a  small  body  of  half-disciplined  militia.     With  so  greatly 
disproportionate  numbers,  it  was  equally  impossible  to  op- 
pose a  landing,*  or  to  keep  the  field  ;  and  the  troops,  accord- 
ingly, were  distributed  into  the  two  strong-holds  of  Nicosia 
and  Famagosta ;  leaving  the  enemy  to  choose  freely  which 
of  those  cities  they  would  first  attack.     Ninety  Venetian 
galleys,  it  is  true,  had  assembled  at  Zara,  since  the  com- 
mencement of  April,  but  they  were  waiting  the  arrival  of 
men  and  stores;  they  were  looking  for  a  junction  with  the 
Spanish  squadron  ;   they  did  not  dare  to  encounter  the 
Turkish  fleet,  which  kept  the  sea  with  nearly  double  their 
numbers;   and  the  inaction  to  which  they  were  reduced 
brought  with  it  that  fearful  scourge  of  maritime  war,  the 
scurvy.     The  4th  of  August  arrived  before  they  were  able 
to  proceed  to  Candia,  where,  combining  with  the  Spaniards, 
they   were   placed    under  the    general   command   of   the 
Genoese  Andrda  Doria. 

The  Turks  profited  abundantly  by  the  tardiness  of  their 
enemy.  Having  chosen  Nicosia  as  their  first  object  of  at- 
tack, they  pitched  their  camp  under  its  walls,  near  the  end 
of  August,!  the  intermediate  time  having  been  spent  in 

*  Morosini  slates  that  the  Turks  were  astonished  to  find  their  disem- 
bamation  unoi)posed.  and  that  those  who  first  leaped  on  shore  so  stronelv 
suspected  the  whole  beach  to  be  undermined,  that  force  was  necessary 
!2 '"T*"  ^'J'""  K  'J.^^ance.  He  adds  also,  that  a  distant  field  of  corn, 
S  p  304?  "  ^  freeze,  was  mistaken  for  a  Venetian  battalion  (lib. 

thlt^S  «T«^he  22d  of  July,  but  Paruta's  words  positirely  contradict 
ni^lrl^  u  ^-  1"^^^**  ^'^^'^^  »'  "ove  di  Settembre  il  quario-decimo 
giorno  dopo  che  vi  s'era  accampato  ress€rcito  Turchesco."  i.  110. 


SIEGE    OF    NICOSIA. 


207 


1 


spreading  themselves  over  the  island,  and  ravaging  the  es- 
tates of  the  Venetian  nobles ;  forbearing  altogether  from  any 
violence  on  the  natives,  whose  ill-disguised  disatlection  from 
their  present  masters  appeared  to  promise  considerable  ad- 
vantage to  the  invaders.     Nicosia,  the  capital  of  Cyprus, 
stands  on  an  elevation,  in  a  rich  champaign  country,  almost 
in  the  centre  of  the  island  ;  and  from  the  salubrity  of  its 
climate,  its  abundance  of  water,  the  beauty  of  its  neigh- 
bouring scenery,  and  its  agreeable  site,  had  ever  been  the 
favourite  and  most  populous  residence  of  the  Cypriotes. 
Much  pains  had  been  taken  to  render  it  capable  of  defence  ; 
but  each  of  the  eleven  bastions,  even  in  its  reduced  circuit 
of  five  miles,  required  two  thousand  men  as  a  fitting  garri- 
son ;   and  Nicolo  Dandolo,  the  governor,  who  is,  on  all 
hands,  represented  to  have  been  inadequate  to  the  great 
responsibility  imposed  uj)on  him,  could  muster  but  eight 
thousand  men  ;  one  thousand  two  hundred  of  whom  were 
Italians,  the  remainder  a  strangely-mingled  mass,  rudely 
armed   with   pikes  or  instruments   of  husbandry  hastily 
adapted  to  purposes  of  war,  and  wholly  untrained  to  ser- 
vice ;  who  therefore  rather  encumbered  than  assisted  him. 
It  was  not,  accordingly,  without  fearful  anticipations,  that 
he  found  himself  invested  by  the  main  body  of  the  Turkish 
army,  under  "  an  old  and  most  expert  general ;  a  severe  and 
absolute  commander,  whom  it  would  have  been  a  hard  mat- 
ter to  have  withstood  with  an  equal  power."* 

From  the  beginning  of  the  siege,  all  communication  with 
Famagosta  was  intercepted  by  the  enemy's  cavalry  ;  and 
the  Turks  opened  and  advanced  their  trenches  so  rapidly, 
that  in  a  few  days  batteries  were  thrown  up  almost  close  to 
the  counterscarp.  From  these  their  engineers,  protected 
by  a  lofty  parapet,  not  only  maintained  an  incessant  can- 
nonade, but  harassed  the  'affrighted  garrison  by  frequent 
discharges  of  artificial  fire,  at  that  time  largely  employed  in 
military''  service.  The  artillery  of  the  Venetians,  mean- 
time, was  skilfully  planted  and  ser\'ed  ;  and  in  more  than 
one  very  daring  sortie  they  materially  injured  the  Turkish 
lines.  In  the  last  of  those  sallies,  bravely  and  dexterously 
conducted  by  two  young  Venetians,  if  Dandolo,  according 
to  his  promise,  had  supported  them  by  the  Stradiot  cavalry, 

*  KnoUes,  847. 


208 


STORM   AND 


^^ 


it  was  thought  the  Mussulmans  would  have  altogether 
abandoned  their  works.  But  the  timidity  of  the  governor 
induced  him  to  close  the  gates,  and  to  disregard  the  remon- 
strances of  a  body  of  volunteers  anxiously  wishing  to  press 
forward  to  the  succour  of  their  comrades  ;  who,  having  sur- 
prised the  trenches,  and  chased  away  their  guard  with  much 
slaughter,  were  in  turn  overpowered,  and  for  the  most  part 
cut  to  pieces. 

At  length,  however,  the  besiegers  established  themselves 
in  the  very  ditch,  under  cover  of  embankments  which  re- 
sisted both  the  front  and  flanking  fire ;  and  from  that  posi- 
tion they  attempted   three  separate  assaults.      Foiled  in 
each  attack,  Mustapha  summoned  from  the  fleet  twenty 
thousand  additional  men  under  Ali,  the  Capudan  Pacha ; 
and   before   daybreak  on  the  9lh  of  September,  he  once 
more  issued  from  his  trenches  to  a  general  storm.     The  ar- 
dour of  the  troops  was  stimulated  by  assurances  of  the  most 
brilliant  promotion  ;  and  they  were  taught  to  believe  that  if 
any  pacha  were  killed  the  reversion  even  of  that  imposing 
dignity  should  be  the  prize  of  the  brave  man  who  firsl 
planted  his  foot  on  the  captured  battlements.     The  garri- 
son, on  the  other  hand,  was  no  less  encouraged  by  delusive 
hopes  of  speedy  relief;  and  so  confident  were  the  troops  of 
its  approach,  that  the  busy  hum  of  preparation  heard  over- 
night from  the  trenches  was  thought  a  prelude  not  to  as- 
sault, but  to  retreat.     The  sun  had  not  yet  risen,  when  the 
foremost  division  of  the  enemy  crossed  the  ditch,  and,  not 
only  unresisted,   but  unobserved,   scaled   a   bastion   from 
which  they  had  before  been  more  than  once  repulsed.     The 
sentinels,  exhausted  by  fatigue  and  lulled  in  fancied  security, 
slept  upon  their  posts,  and  were  instantly  put  to  the  sword. 
It  was  in  vain  that  the  rest  of  the  garrison,  aroused  by  the 
tumult,  rushed  headlong  to  the  walls.     Without  order, 
without  leaders,  unacquainted  with  the  precise  nature  both 
of  their  own  danger  and  of  the  advantage  gained  by  their 
enemy,  as  fresh  swarms  mounted  the  ramparts,  they  were 
either  overpowered  and  cut  to  pieces  on  the  spot,  or  chased 
into  the  heart  of  the  city.     The  miserable  inhabitants  and 
the  few  surviving  troops  took  refuge  in  the  great  square, 
and  made  there  some  feeble  show  of  resistance ;   till  Ali, 
having  scoured  and  secured  the  whole  circuit  of  the  walls, 
turned  three  pieces  of  cannon  upon  this  ill-organized  body, 


SACK    OF   NICOSIA. 


209 


and  dispersed  it  after  a  few  discharges.     The  govemor,  the 
Bishop  of  Paphos,  and  some  of  the  chief  nobles  now  threw 
themselves,  as  a  last  hope,  into  the  palace  court ;  which 
they  maintained  with  the  resolution  of  despair  till  they  re- 
ceived promise  of  quarter.     But  no  sooner  had  they  aban- 
doned their  barricades,  and  surrendered  their  arms,  than  an 
indiscriminate  massacre  commenced;    of  which    the  de- 
fenceless prisoners  were  the  earliest  victims.     Not  all  the 
sufferers,  however,  awaited  the  merciless  sword  of  their 
foes.     Many   precipitated   themselves   headlong   from  the 
roofs  of  their  houses.     One  matron  of  lofty  birth,  having 
sought  her  husband  and  three  sons,  and  learned  intelli- 
gence of  their  death  in  the  breach,  hastened^  back  wUh 
phrensi.cd  steps  to  her  home,  as  yet  inviolate.     There,  pas- 
sionately embracing  for  the  last  time  her  youngest  and  now 
only  boy,  she  stabbed  him  to  the  heart,  in  order  that  he 
might  escape  from  the  yet  greater  horrors  which  were  ap- 
proaching ;   and  then  piercing  her  own  bosom  with   the 
weapon  reeking  with  the  blood  of  her  child,  she  fell  lifeless 
on  his  body.*     Every  crime  with  which  the  unbridled  fury 
of  barbarians  pollutes  the  first  hours  of  conquest  broke 
loose  upon  the  devoted  city  ;  and  in  a  single  day  twenty 
thousand  lives  were  sacrificed  in  cold  blood.     The  survivors 
were  condemned  to  slavery  ;  and  a  signal  vengeance  was 
afterward  taken  upon  some  of  their  brutal  tyrants  by  one 
high-minded  captive.     A  galeot,  conveying  much  rich  spoil 
and  the  flower  of  the  Nicosian  youth  to  Constantinople,  was 
blown  in  pieces  by  a  maiden  of  noble  family  ;  who,  ill- 
brooking  the  menaced  dishonour  of  the  seraglio,  and  con- 
tent to  purchase  exemption  from  shame  by  the  sacrifice  of 
life,  found  opportunity  to  fire  the  magazine.t 

For  nine  days  after  this  fatal  sack  of  Nicosia,  the  com- 
bined fleet,  now  amounting  to  more  than  two  hundred  sail, 
and  carrying  fifteen  thousand  troops,  of  which  number  Ven- 
ice provided  one  hundred  and  fifty-five  ships  and  eleven 

*  Gratianus  de  Bell.  Cypr.  lib.  i.  p.  10.  An  English  version  of  this 
History  is  dedicated  by  the  translator,  R.  Midgley,  to  the  infamous  Judge 
Jeffrevs,  with  fulsome  expressions  of  "  honour  and  veneration"  for  "  his 
lordship's  eminent  character  and  most  illustrious  merits,"  his  "  great 
and  exemplary  virtues,"  &c.  Ac. 

T  Contarini,  Hist,  delta  Guerra  contra  Turchi,  p.  20;  Morosinl, 
ix.  320. 

S  2 


210   DORIA  WITHDRAWS  FROM  THE  FLEET. 

thousand  soldiers,  continued  moored  inactively  in  the  har- 
bours of  Candia,  wholly  ignorant  of  the  great  disaster 
which  had  occurred  in  Cyprus.  At  length  putting  to  sea, 
they  learned  intelligence  of  the  Turkish  success.  On  the 
receipt  of  this  news  Doria  at  once  declared  that  the  object 
of  his  expedition  was  at  an  end;  separated  himself  from 
his  allies  in  spite  of  their  remonstrances,  and  made  sail  for 
Sicily  ;  while  the  Venetians,  thus  reduced  in  numbers,  and 
wholly  unequal  to  the  hazard  of  encountering  the  Ottoman 
fleet,  returned  to  their  former  anchorage  in  Candia.  Du- 
ring this  unhappy  and  inglorious  campaign,  in  which  so 
many  losses  had  been  endured,  and  not  one  blow  attempted 
m  return,  the  monthly  expenditure  of  the  republic  amounted 
to  three  hundred  thousand  ducats. 

Mustapha,  having  left  sufficient  force  for  the  protection 
of  his  first  conquest,  lost  no  time  in  marching  upon  Fama- 
gosta.     From  his  camp,  which  he  pitched  at  about  three 
miles'  distance,  in  a  spot  called  Percipola,*  he  insulted  the 
garrison  by  displaying  the  heads  of  their  Nicosian  com- 
rades, mounted  on  the  pikes  of  horsemen,  who  daily  pa- 
raded the  walls  in  barbarous  triumph.     But  the  season  was 
too  far  advanced  to  permit  any  hope  of  reducincr,  before 
Winter  should  set  in,  a  city  which  demanded  reirular  ap- 
proaches ;  the  few  works  which  he  constructed  were  speed- 
ily destroyed  by  brilliant  sorties  ;  and,  wisely  rcsolvincr  not 
to  diminish  the  ardour  which  recent  victory  had  kindled  in 
his  troops,  by  exposing  them  to  unavailing  peril,  he  forbore 
trom  the  continuance  of  active  operations,  endeavoured  to 
bring  his  enemy  to  capitulate,  and,  failing  in  that  attempt, 
withdrew  to  cantonments  in  which  he  awaited  the  return 
of  spring. 

The  whole  eastern  coast  of  Cyprus  may  be  considered 
as  torming  one  large  bay,  in  about  the  central  point  of  which 
amphitheatre  stands  the  city  of  Famagosta.  Towards  the 
sea,  which  washes  two  of  its  four  sides,  a  natural  break- 
water of  shelving  rocks  protects  a  small  and  shallow  har- 
bour, whose  single  northern  entrance,  presenting  a  mouth 
^arcely  forty  feet  wide,  is  guarded  by  a  chain  and  a  fortress, 
1  ne  v^alls  on  the  land  side  enclose  an  area  of  somewhat 
more  than  two  Italian  miles,  skirted  by  a  ditch  hewn  out 

*  Ubertus  Folieta,  lib.  iil.  ap^<d  Graevu  Thesaur.  vol.  1  pt.  ii.  p.  1022. 


SIEGE  OF  FAMAGOSTA. 


211 


U 


of  the  solid  rock,  and  flanked  by  numerous  towers ;  none  of 
which,  however,  aflbrded  a  sufficiently  broad  platform  for  the 
employment  of  heavy  ordnance.    The  neighbouring  country 
is  one  wide  plain,  upon  the  western  portion  of  which,  about 
the  middle  of  the  following  April,  the  Turks  began      ^   ^^ 
to  break  ground  ;  having  transported  their  battering    ^^^^^ 
train  from  Nicosia,  and  being  reinforced  by  a  large 
influx  of  volunteers,  allured  from  the  coasts  of  J^yria  and 
Caramania  by  lavish  promises  of  booty.     So  numerous  in- 
deed were  those  unpaid  bands  which  crossed  to  Cyprus  alter 
the  fall  of  Nicosia,  as  almost  to  justify  the  vaunt  of  their 
le;wler,  that,  if  each  of  his  soldiers  would  throw  but  one  ot 
his  slippers  into  the  fosse,  he  might  construct  a  Icve   path  to 
the  battlements  of  Famagosta.     More  than  forty  thousand 
pioneers  laboured  incessantly  day  and  night  m  the  trenches ; 
and  so  stupendous  were  their  exertions,  that  along  a  course 
of  three  miles,  in  part  of  wliich  a  hard,  rocky  soil  was  to 
be  excavated,  not  only  the  infantry,  but  even  horsemen 
might  advance,  protected  in  such  manner,   that  scarcely 
the  points  of  their  lances  could  be  discovered  from  the  sum- 
mits of  the  besieged  towers.     The  whole  army  was  securely 
lod.red  within  these  vast  lines,  which,  before  the  end  of  May, 
we?e  pushed  to  the  edge  of  the  counterscarp.     Ten  forts, 
constructed   of  a  strong  framework  of  oak  filled  up  with 
earth,  ashes,  and  woolsacks,  and  each  presentmg  a  tront 
fifty  feet  in  breadth,  protected  these  formidable  approaches  ; 
and  eighty  pieces  of  heavy  artillery,  among  which  were  four 
basilisks  of  immeasurable  caliber,  played  continually  against 
half  a  mile  of  curtain.     To  meet  these  fearful  preparations, 
the  garrison,  into  which  some  scanty  reinforcements  had 
been  thrown,  mustered  seven  thousand  men,  half  Italian, 
lialf  Greek  infantry,  commanded  by  a  valorous  and  experi- 
enced soldier,  Marc'  Antonio  Bragadino. 

One  of  the  most  skilful  engineers  of  the  day,  Geronymo 
MacTgi,  superintended  the  artillery  of  the  garrison  ;  and  he 
is  said,  in  the  course  of  the  siege,  to  have  rendered  eighteen 
cannon  of  the  enemy  unserviceable,  by  shooting  into  their 
very  mouths.  Great,  however,  as  was  his  militar>'  skill,  it 
is  not  so  much  on  that  account,  as  from  his  successlul  cul- 
tivation of  letters  under  circumstances  the  most  unfavour- 
able to  their  pursuit,  that  the  remembrance  of  Maggi  stiU 
•urvives  with  posterity.    Wliile  languishing  in  slavery  at 


^W?gf«sSJ|«3J!ffl|fftS^ 


212 


ASSAULTS. 


MISERIES  OF  THE   BESIEGED. 


213 


%i 


Constantinople,  without  assistance  from  books,  and  relying 
solely  on  the  copious  stores  of  a  powerful  memory,  he  com- 
posed more  than  one  Latin  treatise  on  subjects  of  curious 
research.*  These  works  were  tledicated  to  the  French  and 
Imperial  ambassadors,  whose  influence  he  solicited  for  a 
remission  of  his  captivity.  But  the  Vizier  Mohammed, 
jealous  of  foreign  interference,  and  unwilling  to  release  a 
prisoner  whose  talents  might  again  prove  detrimental  to  his 
country,  prevented  the  application  of  the  envoys,  by  stran- 
gling the  unhappy  Tuscan  in  his  dungeon. 

Frequent  sallies  were  at  first  hazarded  with  no  inconsider- 
able success ;  but,  as  the  enemy  drew  closer,  the  garrison  was 
confined  within  the  walls  by  the  overwhelming  numbers  which 
encircled  them.  The  face  of  the  counterscarp  was  at  length 
perforated,  and  the  besiegers,  securely  established  in  the 
ditch,  commenced  their  mines.  One  of  these,  carried  under 
a  bastion  which  protected  the  arsenal,  was  watched  in  every 
stage  of  its  progress  by  the  garrison  ;  who,  without  power 
to  obstruct  its  advance,  saw  the  galleries  bored,  and  knew 
the  moment  at  which  the  chamber  was  framed  and  the  pow- 
der lodged  within  it.  The  post,  however,  was  far  too  im- 
portant to  be  abandoned  while  a  chance  remained  for  its 
defence,  even  although  eventual  destruction  awaited  its 
protectors;  and  each  fresh  battalion,  when  it  relieved  its 
predecessor,  mounted  guard  as  men  prepared  every  moment 
for  certain  death.  When  at  length  this  mine  was  sprung, 
the  Turks  rushed  forward  over  the  blazing  ruins,  but  they 
met  with  unexpected  resistance;  even  women  stood  in 
the  gap  and  mingled  in  the  battle  ;  and  the  storming  party 
was  beaten  back  after  a  bloody  struggle  of  more  than  five 
hours'  duration. 

The  breach  thus  eflected  was  diligently  repaired  :  sleep, 
save  in  the  extreme  heat  of  midday,  when  neither  party 
could  bear  arms,  was  wholly  abandoned  ;  barrels  filled  with 
earth  were  rolled  to  the  shattered  parapet,  arranged  in  a 
double  tier,  and  surmounted  by  bags  of  mould  constantly 
moistened,  which  formed  a  secure  breastwork.     In  a  few 

*  One  oftbese  essays,  "DeTintinnabulis,"  was  suggested  by  the  pro- 
liibition  of  bells  in  Turkey  ;  another,  "De  Equuleo,"  by  the  various  in- 
etrumonts  ol  torture  which  the  brutality  of  Maggi's  oppressors  continu- 
ally employed  before  his  eyes.  We  have  had  occasion  to  read  both  of 
item  with  pleasure  and  with  profit. 


days,  however,  a  second  mine  was  sprung  in  another  quar- 
ter, and  the  explosion  was  followed  by  a  renewed  attack. 
The  Bishop  of  Liniaso,  standing  at  the  riven  wall,  uplifted 
a  crucifix,  and  encouraged  the  defenders :  while  even  the 
noblest  Cypriote  dames,  undismayed  by  the  sight  of  carnage, 
gathered  round  him,  brought  supplies  of  food  and  ammuni- 
tion to  the  soldiers,  or  rolled  huge  stones  upon  the  heads  of 
the  enemy  in  the  ditch  beneath.     Frustrated  in  both  these 
assaults,  the  Turks  for  a  time  confined  themselves  to  bom- 
bardment, and  swept  the  ramparts  by  a  perpetual  cannon- 
ade.    Volleys  of  arrows  were  aimed  upwards,  so  that  they 
might  fall  perpendicularly  within  the  streets  ;  and  ui  a  sin- 
gle'day  and  night  five  thousand  rounds  of  artillery  are  said 
to  have  been  discharged.     One  gate,  which  seemed  most 
exposed,  was  next  attempted.     It  fronted  an  outwork  which 
had  been  won  after  horrible  slaughter ;  and  in  the  inter- 
mediate space,  the  Turks  having  pUed  fascines  and  logs  of 
a  native  wood,  a  kind  of  fir  which  burns  with  a  sufibcating 
vapour  and  most  offensive  .stench,  kindled  the  inass,  and 
fed  it  with  fresh  combustibles  during  many  succeeding  days. 
Every  effort  to  extinguish  this  most  grievous  fire  was  inef- 
fectual, and  yet,  even  against  a  mode   of  attack  so  new 
and  so  harassing,  the  sentinels  contijmcd  to  maintain  them- 
selves. 

Now,  says  Contarini,  who  has  most  vividly  recorded  this 
heroic  struggle,  matters  were  reduced  to  extremity.    Every 
thing  failed  within  the  city,  excepting  the  valour  of  the 
commander  and  the  zeal  of  his  followers.     Wine  and  fresh 
meat,  even  that  of  such  unclean  animals  as  famine  alone 
can  induce  its  miserable  victims  to  taste,  were  long  since 
utterly  exhausted ;  and  a  little  bread  for  food,  and  a  little 
vinegar  mingled  with  water  for  drink,  was  all  that  remained. 
Three  mines  were  already  carried  under  the  principal  gate, 
an  artificial  mound  of  earth  was  raised  to  a  greater  height 
than  the  battlements,  and  the  besiegers  all  around  were 
more  than  ever  indefatigable.     Of  the  Italian  troops  in  the 
garrison  only  five  hundred  remained  unwounded,  and  these 
were  worn  down  by  perpetual  exposure  to  heat,  toil,  hun- 
ger, and  watching ;  of  the  Greeks  the  greater  and  better 
part  had  altogether  perished.     Neither  medicine  nor  sur- 
gical aid  was  attainable  for  the  sick  and  hurt ;  and  the  few 
troops  still  capable  of  bearijig  arms  appeared  to  bo  sup- 


214 


FIRMNESS  OF  BRAGADINO. 


ported  much  less  by  physical  strenrrth  than  by  indomit* 
able  vigour  of  spirit.     It  was  under  these  most  calamitous 
circumstances  that,  on  the  20th  of  July,  the  chief  inhabit- 
ants addressed  a  memorial  to  Bra(r:idino,  couched  in  a  tone 
of  humblest  supplication  ;  and  imploring  him,  that  since 
the  city,   without  defenders,  without  provisions,   without 
hope  of  succour,  was  manifestly  no  longer  tenable ;  since 
they  had  heretofore,  while  a  chance  of  success  existed,  will- 
ingly placed  their  lives  and  fortunes  at  his  disposal,  for  the 
service  of  the  republic  ;  that  he  would  now  consent  to  ac- 
cept honourable  conditions  ;  by  which  alone  he  might  pre- 
serve their  wives  and  daughters  from  dishonour,  their  sons 
from  captivity  or  the  sword  ;  or  perhaps  from  a  fate  of  yet 
greater  horror,  the  everlasting  destruction  of  their  souls  by 
a  forced  abandonment  of  their  faith.     To  this  remonstrance 
the  governor  replied  that  their  fears  were  misplaced,  that 
relief  was  at  hand,  and  that  he  would  instantly  despatch  a 
frigate  to  Candia,  which  could  not  fail  to  bring  back  supplies 
and  reinforcements,  and  with  them  the  certainty  of  ultimate 
deliverance. 

During  the  following  ten  days,  so  powerful  was  the  effect 
of  the  Turkish  mines,  that   scarcely  a  single  point  in  the 
ramparts  was  left  unshattered.     Bragadino,  nevertheless, 
continued  obstinately  to  reject  all  suggestions  of  surrender. 
It  was  at  length  announced  to  him  that  ammunition  had 
failed,  and  that  the  magazines  contained  no  more  than 
seven  barrels  of  powder  ;  and  thus  deprived  of  the  remotest 
hope  of  protracting  defence,  he  consented  to  beat  a  parley, 
at  noon  on  the   1st  of  August.      Hostages  were   imme- 
diately interchanged,  and  a  very  few  hours  sufficed  for  the 
adjustment  of  terms,  which  appeared  to  be  regulated  far 
more  by  a  recollection  of  the  honourable  resistan'ce  hitherto 
niaintaincd  by  the  garrison,  than  by  the  sad  straits  to  which 
it  was  fmally  reduced.     The  troops  were  to  be  landed  in 
Candia  by  Turkish  vessels  ;    they  were  to  retain  all  their 
property  and  arms,  five  pieces  of  cannon,  and  three  horses 
for  the  principal  officers.     Similar  conditions  were  granted 
to  the  citizens  who  chose  to  expatriate;  and  such  as  pre- 
ferred abiding  in  their  native  seats  received  a  guarantee  for 
the  security  of  their  lives,  honour,  and  possessions.     As 
an  earnest  of  tidelity,  forty  galleys  immediately  entered  the 
harbour,  and  partial  embarkation  commenced  on  the  day 


HE  SURRENDERS  THE  KEYS  OF  THE  CITY.      215 

following.  It  was  with  mutual  expressions  of  profound 
admiration  that  the  remnant  of  the  garrison  passed  through 
the  Turkish  lines  :  the  Italians  were  moved  with  astonish- 
ment at  the  gigantic  works  and  countless  hosts  which  they 
surveyed ;  for  the  white  turbans,  glistening  above  the 
trenches  in  a  circuit  of  three  miles,  struck  the  eye  as  if  the 
ground  were  deeply  covered  with  flakes  of  snow ;  and,  on 
the  other  hand,  the  pale,  weakened,  and  emaciated  forms 
of  those  who  had  so  long  and  with  so  desperate  a  valour 
defied  all  their  efforts,  extorted,  not  without  some  feeling 
of  shame,  the  respect  of  the  Turks.  They  tendered  re- 
freshments to  their  late  foes,  addressed  them  with  kindness, 
extolled  their  former  constancy,  and  bade  them  be  of  good 
cheer  for  the  future. 

On  the  morning  of  the  5th  of  August,  Bragadino  notified 
to  Mustapha  that  he  was  prepared  to  surrender  the  keys  of 
the  city  ;  and  that,  on  receiving  permission,  he  would  come 
for  that  purpose  to  the  camp.  The  reply  of  the  Turkish 
general  was  couched  in  terms  the  most  generous  and 
honourable ;  he  anticipated  pleasure  from  the  approaching 
interview  ;  he  acknowledged  the  valour  of  his  rival,  and 
he  declared  his  readiness,  everywhere,  and  on  all  occa- 
sions, to  avouch  it  by  the  strongest  i)ersonal  testimony. 
On  the  delivery  of  this  courteous  message,  Bragadino,  ac- 
companied by  his  chief  officers  and  some  Greek  gentlemen, 
and  escorted  by  fifty  musketeers,  rode  forth  to  the  lines. 
Himself  led  the  troops  ;  and  in  order  to  display  such  pomp 
as  it  was  yet  in  his  power  to  exhibit,  and  as  the  occasion 
seemed  to  demand,  he  wore  his  magisterial  purple  robes, 
iand  was  shaded  by  the  umbrella  which  marked  his  office. 
At  the  entrance  of  the  pacha's  tent,  this  gallant  company 
was  received  with  due  honours  ;  they  delivered  up  their 
arms  to  the  attendants,  according  to  the  oriental  custom  ; 
and  they  were  then  introduced  to  the  presence  of  Mustapha. 
For  a  while,  the  conversation  which  ensued  ranged  over 
various  and  indifferent  matters  ;  and  the  pacha  veiled  his 
ulterior  foul  desitrn  with  consummate  dissimulation.  At 
length,  turning  abruptly  to  Bragadino,  he  asked  what  se- 
curity he  intended  to  offer  for  the  safe  return  of  the  trans- 
ports which  were  to  bear  his  soldiers  to  Candia]  To  this 
inquir}'  Bragadino  replied,  that  no  mention  of  security  oc- 
curred in  the  capitulation.     Among  his  attendant  suite. 


MSomJh  jaftaa 


216 


HORRIBLE  FATE  OF  BRAGADINO. 


ALLIANCE  WITH  SPAIN. 


217 


one  of  the  most  distinguished  was  Antonio  Quirini,  a  young^ 
Venetian  of  noble  birth,  of  approved  valour,  and  of  graceful 
person  ;  well  known  also  to  the  Turkish  army  as  the  son 
of  a  skilful  engineer  who  had  long  superintended  the  forti- 
fications of  Nicosia.  Pointing  to  that  youth,  Mustapha 
required  him  as  a  hostage  ;  and  vs'hen  Bragadino  firmly 
rejected  the  demand,  the  pacha,  leaping  from  the  ground 
with  furious  gestures,  accused  the  Italians,  in  terms  of  un- 
measured violence,  of  having  put  to  death  the  Mussulmans 
taken  prisoners  during  the  siege.  Then,  on  a  sign  to  his 
eunuchs,  Quirini  and  the  other  officers  were  seized,  bound, 
dragged  from  the  pavilion,  and  cut  to  pieces  under  the 
pacha's  eyes.  Bragadhio,  reserved  for  a  more  cruel  and 
more  lingering  fate,  was  thrice  ordered  to  bare  his  neck  to 
the  sword,  which  was  thrice  withdrawn  when  it  had  been 
raised  to  strike ;  and  after  this  repeated  infliction  of  the 
chief  bitterness  of  death  had  passed,  he  was  thrown  to  the 
ground  and  deprived  of  his  ears  ;  the  pacha  meanwhile 
asking,  with  blasphemous  scorn,  why  he  did  not  cry  to  his 
Saviour  for  assistance.  This  savage  outrage  was  followed 
by  the  immediate  massacre  of  the  attendant  escort,  and  ot 
three  hundred  Christians  v/ho  had  unsuspectingly  trustew 
themselves  in  the  camp ;  and  on  the  second  day  afterward 
\»hetl  Mustapha  entered  Famagosta,  he  ordered  Thiepolo 
the  officer  left  in  command,  to  be  ignominiously  hanged 
Then,  following  up  these  treacherous  butcheries  by  a  genera' 
violation  of  the  treaty,  he  seized  as  prisoners  and  condemned 
to  the  oar  the  whole  garrison,  and  such  Cypriotes  as  had 
already  embarked.  The  miseries  of  Bragadino  were  pro- 
tracted during  ten  days  longer.  Every  morning  he  was 
brought  out,  laden  with  heavy  baskets  of  earth,  and  driven 
to  labour  on  the  batteries  which  he  had  vainly  defended  ; 
and  each  time  that  he  passed  Mustapha's  pavilion  he  was 
bowed  down,  and  compelled  to  kiss  the  ground  at  the 
tyrant's  feet.  Then,  led  down  to  the  seashore  and  fast- 
ened in  a  chair,  he  was  hoisted  to  a  yard-arm  of  one  of  the 
chips,  and  a  loud  signal  having  been  given,  he  was  exhibited 
alofl  to  the  cowardly  derision  of  the  Mussulman  sailors, 
and  the  indignant  pity  of  his  own  enslaved  comrades.  In 
the  enil,  when  all  power  of  inflicting  further  contumely  ap- 
peared to  be  exhausted,  he  was  carried  to  the  great  square 
ef  Famagosta,  stripped  upon  the  public  scaffold,  chained  to 


a  stake,  and  slowly  j9ayed  alive,  while  Mustapha  looked 
down  upon  the  barbarous  spectacle  from  a  height  adjoining 
the  palace.  Unsatiated  by  the  dying  agonies  of  his  illus- 
trious victim,  the  pacha's  cruelty  pursued  even  his  lifeless 
remains.  His  skin,  stuffed  with  straw,  was  mounted  on  a 
cow,  and  paraded  through  the  streets,  with  the  umbrella 
held  over  it  in  mockery ;  and  it  was  then  suspended  at  the 
bowsprit  of  the  admiral's  galley,  and  displayed  as  a  trophy 
during  the  voyr.ge  to  Constantinople.  One  other  base 
passion  remained  to  be  gratified,  and  the  pacha,  having 
glutted  his  revenge,  found  indiil;,ance,  some  years  after- 
ward, for  his  avarice.  The  skin  of  their  martyred  relative, 
purchased  at  a  high  price  by  the  family  of  Bragadino,  was 
deposited  in  a  sepulchral  urn  in  the  church  of  SS.  Giovanni 
and  Paolo,  where  it  still  remains  with  a  commemorative 
inscription.* 

Cyprus  was  thus  won  by  the  Turks,  at  the  cost  of  more 
than  fifty  thousand  men  :  and  during  this  successful  pro- 
gress of  the  Ottoman  arms  at  a  distance  from  the  Lagune^ 
Venice  had  trembled  for  safety  even  within  her  own  gulf. 
Before  the  close  of  1570,  the  senate  attempted  to  treat  with 
Constantinople  ;  and  the  King  of  Spain,  who,  if  peace  had 
been  concluded,  would  have  been  exposed  single-handed  to 
the  fury  of  the  infidels,  was  alanned  into  activity,  and 
brought  to  an  end  his  long-pending  negotiation  with  the 
pope  and  Venice.  By  that  alliance,  two  hundred  galleys 
and  half  as  many  transports,  bearing  fifty  thousand  infantry 
and  four  thousand  five  hundred  horse,  provided  at  the 
common  expense  in  different  proportions,  and  the  whole 
armament  placed  under  the  command  of  a  Spanish  general, 
was  to  rendezvous  at  Messina,  in  the  ensuing  May.  Ven- 
ice, by  incredible  exertion,  prepared  her  contingent  by  the 
appointed  time  ;  but  the  tardy  Spaniards  were  still  in  arrear, 

*  The  particulars  of  Mustapha's  treachery  in  his  interview  with 
Bragadino,  were  reported  by  an  eyewitness.  The  Conte  Hercole  Mar- 
tenengo  attended  in  his  suite;  and  when  dragged  to  execution,  owed 
his  life  to  the  intervention  of  a  eunuch,  who  concealed  him  at  the  mo- 
ment, and  afterward  accepting  a  ransom,  demurred  to  release  his 
prisoner,  who  in  the  end  escaped.  The  pacha's  succeeding  cruelties 
were  matters  of  open  notoriety.  P.  Jusiiniani,  delighting  in  prodigies 
as  much  as  Livy,  and  with  less  excuse,  cannot  dismiss  this  sad  history 
without  a  miracle.  Bragadino's  head,  he  says,  when  fixed  on  a  spear, 
emitted,  for  three  nights,  rays  glittering  like  those  of  the  sun,  and  di£ni8ed 
a  marvellous  fragrance.— Lib.  xvi.  p.  451. 

Vol.  II.— T 


m,^  ^ 


218  VENICE  THREATENED  BY  A  TURKISH  FLEET. 

when  two  hundred  Turkish  sail,  having  laid  waste  the 
islands  between  the  Morea  and  the  Dalmatian  coast,  with- 
out meeting  an  enemy  to  oppose  them,  pursued  their  tri- 
umphant course  within  the  Adriatic  itself.     Passing  Ra- 
gusa,  and  sacking  Curzola  and  licsina,  those  scenes  of 
early  Venetian  renown,  they  spread  consternation  through 
the  Lagune^  within  which  their  presence  was  hourly  ex- 
pected.     Every  precaution    which   haste    permitted   was 
adopted  in  the  capital ;  and  the  anxious  citizens,  obstructing 
their  canals  with  chains  and  sunken  vessels,  and  covering 
the  aggere  with  batteries,  prepared  for  an  attack  similar 
to  that  by  which  they  so  greatly  suffered  two  centuries  be- 
fore, when  Chiozza  was  won  by  the  Genoese.     The  Turk- 
ish admiral,  however,  content  with  the  glory  of  having 
insulted  Venice  in  her  own  seas,  and  a[)prphensive  that 
if  he  protracted  his  stay,  the  confederates,  bv  that  time 
assembled,  would  hasten  to  her  relief  and  blockade  him  in 
the  gulf,  changed  his  course,  after  this  proud  demonstra- 
tion, and  made  sail  for  the  Morea. 

It  was  not  till  the  end  of  August  that  the  allies  com- 
pleted their  arrangements,  and  assembled  at  Messina.     The 
command  of  their   armament  was  intrusted  by  Philip  II. 
to  his  half-brother,  Don  John  of  Austria,  a  bastard  whoni 
Charles  V.  had  acknowledged,  whom  Philip  continued  to 
distinguish  with  all  the  honours  due  to  royal  birth,  and  who, 
although  scarcely  two-and-twenty  years  of  age,   already 
manifested  qualities  which  were  to  rank  him  among  the 
greatest  captains  of  his  time.     The  cold  and  suspicious 
policy  of  the  Spanish  court  clogged  this  young  prince  with 
a  council  of  war ;  whose  suggestions  of  timid  caution,  if  they 
had  been  implicitly  obeyed,  might  have  robbed  him  of  his 
glory  :  and  early  in  his  command,  that  jealousy  which  is  so 
frequently  the  bane  of  combined  armaments  was  awakened 
by  a  petty  accident.     The  allies  directed  their  course  in  the 
first  instance  to  Corfu,  in  hope  of  learning  tidings  of  the 
enemy  ;  and  during  one  of  the  last  days  of  Septemlier,  an 
affray  between  the  crew  of  a  Candiote  galley  and  some 
troops  in  the  Spanish  service  embarked   in  her  wellnigh 
occasioned  the  dissolution  of  the  confederacy.     Lives  had 
already  been  lost  in  the  squabble,  when  Sebastiano  Veniero, 
the  Venetian  commander,  who  was  near  at  hand,  sent  on 
board  first  an  inferior  oflficer,  and  afterward  his  captain ; 


ENCOUNTER  OF  THE  HOSTILE  FLEETS.    219 

i,nfH  of  whom  were  chased  away  by  the  soldiers,  and  the 
^ttVwilh  murh  personal  injury.  Veniero,  indignant  at 
to  Jo  s  aront  offered  within  sight  of  his  own  flag-ship, 

^xcted  them  «"  1^^^"^^'  ^,  hi,  yard-arm.     This  in- 
and  hanged  ^W  sjm^  ^^^^  ^^^  ^^^  ^^^^^^^ 

vasion,  as  it  appearea  ^^  j  although  his  council 

thoritv,  was  g"^^;^^^/"^^^'^^^^^        irritation,  they  could  not 

Pf  f '  ^-rufsh  i      so  Zt'he  refused  to'hold'any  direct 
wholly  extinguish  It     so  in  ,^^^^^^,^^  all  affairs  re- 

communica  ion  ^^t'\;;^"'^^        ^hrouah  the   intermediate 

'^'"^  'oft^o'strSarra    "  one  of  the  ,ro^.cd.iori ;  a 
agency  of  ^g^^^^^^  fj^^^  f^^-^^j         ,  ^^iUtary  experience. 

1  ms  111  uiaeu  u  rpreived  of  the   station  of  the 

T^rkilfflTef  rae  Arf>aX™o.ewhcre  in  the  neigh- 
Turkish  Heet  """'^  j^      |„  <,n„al  m  numbers ;» 

bounng  Gulf  »'  X"';,;^„  '  „„/at  Lnd,  Mthough  not 
each  knowing  that  his  «"f"Y/„osition  •  each  ardent  for 
yet  precisely  'nformed  as  '-^I^^^.'^Zm  not  engage 
battle,  yet  believmg  that    "»  ^l^^j^  ,nana-uvred  for  a  few 

without  ^^'P"'^'™',  ^<=„™  he  d™  i^^J  ™"'^^'--  ^"'  =" 
days  in  the  >wP%fj,'«  X"ob«  they  descried  each  other's 
daybreak  on  the  7th  ot  "J""""  '"^■^  ,  f  ,he  entrance 
Js  blackening  a  long  range  of  «as^^f.  a,^^^ 

of  the  Bay  »f^,»™'''Ve  greatest  maritime  battle  in 
Actmm,  immortataed  by  tbe^  „  ^^^^^.    ^j  ^t, 

r""tL  Sp'^i^ish  CO,  mSoTiers  urgently  represented  to 
V  „„.rSnothe  Treat  hazard  of  an  engagement,  and 
then  generaUssimo  i"^  o'^  oossiblc.  But  they  were  in- 
the  necessity  »f ''V^f '"^ ^t.  '^ P»;;;  j^i,  „f  j^'e  prince: 
dignantly  sile^iced  by  ■«  Sf  "["  is  wantino-  at  such  a 
..Xetivity  !'2^.ttd  f  rt  a  gun,  an^  displaying  at  his 
S-ta?  ttslantrdrf  U>c  league  as  a  signal  for  battle. 

easses  of  ihe  Venetians,  from  tlier  .r^  'j,,.^  rmmbers  very 

their  guns,  reduced  this  ^'^'-''^^^^.'^^'^^'^'^ority  which  raises  the  fleet 
nearl?  to  equality.    Daru  '"""^'f  „*,,f/^.  ^^^  S.  that  of  the  allies  to 
of  the  Turks  to  three  huiuired  «  "\,  J  r'^^^^f^^^e  admitted  that  five 
two  hundred  and  ««vemy-one     U     a>  sa  eiy 
bundxed  ships  were  in  presence  of  each  of  hi  r. 


agih.aA.«i:^iJW>eaifeafiiifcagiMW , 


220 


ALLIED  ORDER  OF  RATTT.W. 


^««  V^T%  A 


TjATinvfi  van  THE  BATTLE. 


221 


220 


ALLIED  ORDER  OF  BATTLE. 


he  ordered  his  shallop,  and  passing  from  galley  to  galley, 
he  urged  zealously  upon  his  followers  every  argument,  by 
which  they  could  be  excited  or  invigorated.     He  pointed  at 
once  to  the  overwhelming  shame  and   peril  of  defeat ;  to 
the  gain,  the  glory,  and  the  necessity  of  victory  ;  assuring 
them  that  our  Lord  and   Saviour  would  succour  his  owS 
Uhnstians  :  promising  them  certain  triumph  if  they  foueht 
as  became  men,  and  did  but  remember  that  the  present 
was  the  moment  at  which  they  might  win  undying  renown 
and  take  just  vengeance  at  one  blow  for  all  their  manifold 
lormer  wrongs.     This  address  was  hailed  on  all  sides  by 
enthusiastic  shouts  and  vivas,  and  by  vehement  pledges  that 
every  man  would  fumi  his  duty.*  ^     g^-s  mai 

^  Emerging  from  the  intricate  channel  between  the  Alba- 
nian coast  and  the  opposite  islands,  and  doublin^r  the  Cur- 
zolari  rocks,  the  Echinades  of  antiquity,  tlie  combined  fleet 
had  full  room  to  extend   itself  in  its  previously  appointed 
order  of  battle      Six  large  Venetian  galeasses  were  dis- 
tributed about  half  a  mile  in  front  of  the  main  line,  which 
covered  a  surface  of  nearly  four  miles  in  length;  no  more 
room  than  sufficed  for  the  passage  of  a  sin|le  ship  being 
left  be  ween  any  two  galleys.     The  right,  under  Andrei 
l^ona,  kept  the  open  sea  ;  the  left,  commanded  by  the  prav- 
TeditoreB^rb^ngo,  advanced  along  the  Grecian  shore  :  in 
the  centre  Don  John  took  his  station,  supported  on  either 
side  by  the  papal  and  Venetian  commanders,  Marc'  Antonio 
Colonna  and  Veniero  ;  and  throughout  the  line,  as  a  testi- 
mony of  mutual  confidence,  the  galleys  were  intermingled, 
without  any  regard  to  national  distinction. 

Immediately  as  the  infidels  were  discovered,  says  the  ani- 
mated narrative  of  Contarini,  that  happy  news  ran  from 
ship  to  ship  Then  began  the  Christians  right  joyfully  to 
clear  their  decks,  distributing  arms  in  all  necessary  quar- 
ters, and  accoutring  themselves  according  to  their  respective 
duties :  some  with  arquebuses  and  halberts,  others  with 
iron  maces,  pikes,  swords,  and  poniards.  No  vessel  had 
less  than  two  hundred  soldiers  on  board ;  in  the  flag-ships 

l^!^%7u^- '''  ^r"  ^^"^  hundred.  The  gunners,  meantime, 
lo^ed  their  ordnance  with  square,  round,  and  chain  shot, 
and  prepared  their  artificial  fire  with  the  pots,  grenades,  car- 

*  Contarini,  49. 


PREPARATIONS  FOR  THE  BATTLE.  221 

rasses,  and  other  instruments  requisite  for  its  discharge.* 
All  the  Christian  slaves  condemned  to  the  galleys  for  tlieiJ 
crimes  were  unchained,  restored  to  entire  liberty,  encouraged 
to  ficrht  for  Jesus,  through  whose  mercy  they  had  recovered 
freedom,  and  armed  in  the  same  manner  as  their  comrades, 
with  sword,  targe,  and  cuirass.     Meantime  the  squadrons 
took  up  their  stations  with  admirable  precision  and  silence, 
and  the  <raleasses  were  towed  forward  in  advance.     Every 
vessel  was  then  dressed  with  flags,  streamers,  pennons,  ban- 
ners! and  banderols,  as  on  a  day  of  jubilee  and  festivity; 
"he  drums,  trumpets,  fifes,  and  clarions  sounded  :  a  general 
ihout  rana  through  the  armament;  and  each  ma"  invoked 
thmself  the  Et^ernal  Trinity  and  the  Blessed  Mother  of 
Sod  ;  while  the  priests  and  many  ot   the  captains  hastened 
from  stem  to  stern,  bearing  crucifixes  J"  f^.^^^  ^^ands,  and 
exhorting  the  crew  to  look  to  Him  who  had  descended  visi- 
bly from  heaven    to  combat   the   enemies   of  his  name 
Mov  d  and  inflamed  by  ghostly  zeal,  this   g-f  -"^W 
assumed,  as  it  were,  one  body,  one  spirit,  and  one  will , 
caXs  of  death,  and  retaining  noother  thought  except  tha^ 
of  fighting  for  thdr  Saviour  :  so  that  you  might  perceive  on 
a  su'dden°a  strange  mystery   and  a  singular  miracle  o    the 
supreme  power  of  God  ,  when  in  one  mstant  all  feuds  and 

2nions%ll  hatred  and  ^-»i-^>«-r  h  hkSn^irher 
arisincr  from  whatever  bitter  injuries,  which  hitherto  neither 
the  mediation  of  friends  nor  the  terror  of  authority  coud 
Xy?  were  at  once  extinguished.  Those  who  had  mutually 
Sed  or  sufl-ered  wron|  embraced  as  ^-thren  and  po^^^^^^^ 
out  tears  of  affection  while  they  clasped  each  otiirj  in  the^ 
arms.  O  blessed  and  mercitul  on^"'P«^^"^,^^«,^..^°^;  T^ 
marvellous  art  thou  in  thy  operations  upon  the  f^i  hfuM 

The  Turks  when  first  seen  ^'^^^f.^^^^J^X   '  from 
miles  distant,  covering  the  entrance  of  the  p "  ^ ^^  P™„"^ 
Cape  Kologriato  Mesolonghi.    Mahome    Siroco,  Oover^^^ 
of  Alexand^ria,  led  their  right ;  Ulucci-Ali,  an  Italian  rene 
gade,  and  King  of  Algiers,  their  left ;  and  the  Capudan  All 

*  Grenades  an.  carcasses  are  comnjo^Hysf  not^t^^ 
till  1596,  iwenty-five  years  ^^^"^ '^e  battle  otl.epano 
are  more  disputed  than  those  '^^^.^^'f'^'^J)^;^^^^^  were 

gunnery.     We  ^"0^^' "«[  J«;^J«f  '^ J^^"^^'^^^ 
probably,  as  we  have  called  them,  luapois  lu  wui^u 

t  Contarini,  48  b. 


222 


BATTLE  OF 


LEPANTO. 


223 


in  person,  assisted  by  two  other  pachas,  Pertau  and  Hassan 
commanded  the  main  battle.     Ignorant  of  the  numbers  of 
the  Chnstian  force,  which,  as  it  advanced  from  behind  the 
islands  m  columns  was  not  yet  fully  developed  ;  and  per- 
ceivmg  that  Doria,  with  the  first  division,  after  heavin/  in 
sight,  bore  out  widely  to  starboard  (in  order  that  he  might 
afford  free  passage  for  the  rest  of  the  fleet) ;  Ali  imagined 
that  movement  to  be  preparatory  to  flight ;  and  having  al- 
ready resolved  upon  action,  in  opposition  to  his  colleagues, 
he  now  felt  doubly  confident  of  victory,  and  gave  orders  for 
immediate  advance.     The  fleets  at  first  approached  each 
other  slowly  and  majestically  ;  the  sun  had  already  passed 
the  meridian,  and  shone  therefore  dazzlingly  in  the  faces  of 
the  Turks  ;  and  a  westerly  breeze  springing  up  just  before 
they  closed  gave  the  allies  the  advantage  of  wind  also ;  so 
that  when  the  cannonade  began  the  smoke  was  driven 'full 
upon  the  infidels.     A  corsair  who   had  been  sent  forward 
to  reconnoitre,  not  having  seen  the  rear  division,  reported 
emngly  ot  the  Christian  numbers  ;  and  stated,  moreover, 
that  the  large  galeasses  in  the  van  carried  guns  only  on 
their  forecastles.     The  Turks  therefore  bore  up  to  them 
fearlessly,  supposing  that  when  their  bows  were  passed  all 
danger  was  at  an  end.     Great  then  was  their  consternation 
When  a  close,  well-directed,  and  incessant  fire,  in  which 
every  shot  told,  from  the  admirable  level  of  the  guns,  pointed 
much  lower  than  those  of  the  loftier  Turkish  vessels,  burst 
Irom  each  broadside,  scattering  destruction  over  every  ob- 
i     .  r  .!r  ^^^'•^"g^•     ^^l^e  wind  blowing  in  their  teeth 
kept  the  Mussulmans  long  exposed  to  these  deadly  volleys  • 
and  whenever  at  intervals  the  smoke  cleared  away,  they 
saw  a  hornble  confusion  of  shivered  spars,  yards,  masts, 
and  rigging :  here,  galleys  split  asunder,  there,  others  in 
flames ;  some  sinking,    some  floating  down  the  tide,  no 
longer  manageable,  their  banks  of  oars  having  been  shot 
away  ;  and  everywhere  the  face  of  the  sea  covered  with 
men    wounded,  dead    or  drowning.*      In   this  disorder, 
Mahomet  Siroco  was  the  first  to  close  with  the  allied  left 
and  dexterously  passing  between  their  outermost  ship  and 

fh!f    ""  L     ^^"^^^^  ^^P^^'>^  "P«"  ^^^''  sterns.     Barbarigo  in 
mat  quarter  was  soon  engaged  in  a  most  unequal  combat 

♦Contarjni,  p.  51. 


with  six  Turkish  vessels  :  and  while  gallantly  cheering  hia 
men  he  was  mortally  wounded  by  an  arrow,  which,  piercing 
one  of  his  eyes,  deprived  him  of  speech,  although  not  of 
life  till  three  days  after  the  battle.     Nani,  his  successor  m 
command,  not  only  beat  oft'  his  numerous  enemies,  but  took 
one  of  their  galleys  ;    and  the  numbers  every  moment  be- 
coming more  equal,  the  Turks,  dispirited  at  the  loss  of  their 
first  advantage,  gave  way  ;  Siroco's  flag-ship  was  sunk ; 
and  the  admiral  himself  picked  up  from  the  waves,  covered 
with  wounds,  and  scarcely  retaining  signs  of  hie,  was  im- 
mediately despatched.     Ps'ot  a  Mussulman  ship  m  that  di- 
vision escaped  ;  a  few  which  attempted  flight  were  pur- 
sued and  captured  ;  most  were  carried  by  boarding ;  and 
when  their  decks  were  once  gained,  the  Christian  slaves  by 
whom  their  oars  were  manned,  being  released  and  armed, 
revenged  the  bitter  sufferings  of  their  captivity  by  unspar- 
ing and  indiscriminate  slaughter. 

In  the  encounter  of  the  central  divisions,  Ah  and  Uon 
John,  each  readily  distinguished  by  the  standard  of  chief 
command  which  he  bore,  singled  each  other  from  the  melee ; 
Veniero  and  Colonna  fought  closely  beside   the   princes 
realey  and  the  remainder  of  the  hostile  squadrons  soon 
joined  hi  general  combat— the  Christians  for  the  most  part 
employing  firearms,   the   Turks  crossbows    and   archery. 
Then  "  the  mixed  noise  of  joy  and  lamentation  made  by  the 
conquerors  and  the  conquered,  the  sound  of  muskets  and 
cannon,  and  many  other  wariike  instruments,  the  cloud  of 
smoke  which  obscured  the  sun,  took  away  the  use  of  ears 
and  eyes,  and  made  the  fight  the  sharper  and  more  con- 
fused."*    Thrice  was  Ali's  galley  boarded,  and  his  crew 
driven  to  their  mainmast ;  and  thrice  were  the  Spaniards 
repulsed ;  till  at  one  critical  moment  both  Don  John  and 
Veniero,  pressed  by  an  inimcasurnbly  superior  force,  which 
had  hastened  to  the  pacha's  assistance,  appeared  lost  be- 
yond the  possibility  of  rescue.     The  seasonable  advance  of 
a  reserve  under  the  Marquis  di  Santa  Croce  restored  the 
balance  of  numbers  ;  and  the  self  devotion  of  two  Venetian 
captains,  Loredano  and  Malipiero,  who  plunged  mto  the 
thickest  fight,  diverted  peril  from  their  chiet  at  the  cost  of 
their  own  lives.    Don  John  was  no  sooner  freed  from  his  other 

*  Henry,  Earl  of  Monmouth,  translation  of  Paruta,  p.  133. 


TOTAT.  npprAT 


224 


TOTAL  DEFEAT 


opponents  than,  although  slightly  wounded  by  an  arrow,* 
he  renewed  combat  with  his  most  distinguished  antaaonist : 
and  as  his  boarders  grappled  again  with  the  pacha's'Valley, 
and  sprang  once  more  upon  its  deck,  Ali  fell  by  a  musket- 
shot,  and  his  crew  threw  down  their  arms.     Accustomed  to 
the  more  civilized  usages  of  modem  warfare,  we  shudder 
when  we  hear  that  the  pacha's  head  was  severed  from  his 
body,  set  upon  the  point  of  a  spear  which  Don  John  bore  at 
that  time  in  his  hand,  and  mounted  on  the  summit  of  his 
own  mast.t      The  grisly  trophy,  soon  recognised,  struck 
terror  into  the   whole  Mussulman  fleet,   and  decided  the 
hitherto  wavering  fortune  of  the  day.     The  galley  of  Pertau 
was  the  next  prize  which  surrendered,  her  commander  him- 
self escaping  only  by  taking  to  his  boat.     Thirty  ships 
spread  all  sail  in  flight ;  but  as  their  Christian   pursuers 
neared  them,  the  mariners  leaped  overboard,  and  few  gained 
the  laml ;  so  that  in  the  centre,  as  in  the  division  of  Siroco, 
every  1  urkish  vessel  was  captured  or  destroyed. 

The  shout  of  "  Victory"  from  the  main  battle  of  the  allies 
was  answered  by  the  same  glad  word  from  their  left,  but  on 
the  right  the  engagement  was  still  continued  with   less 
assured  success.     Doria,  whether  from  inequality  of  num- 
bers, or  from  a  desire,  imputed  to  him  on  more  than  this  one 
occasion,  to  expose  his  own  squadron  to  as  little  hazard  as 
possible,  had  swept  round  in  a  wide  and  distant  compass, 
as  If  to  outflank  the  enemy ;  and  had  consequently  not  yet 
been  m  action.     The  practised  eye  of  Ulucci-Ali  perceived 
at  once  the  great  advantage  thus  afforded  him  by  the  breach 
m  the  Christian  line;  and  bearing  down  upon  fifteen  of 
their  ships,  thus  separated  from  their  mates,  he  captured  a 
Maltese  and  set  fire  to  a  Venetian  galley.     The  former  was 
speedily  recovered,  the  latter  perished  with  all  her  crew 
Oy  far  the  most  touching  incident  in  this  portion  of  the 
battle  arose  out  of  the  strong  mutual  affection  displayed  by 
three  grandsons  of  Luigi  Cornaro,  the  valetudinarian  who 
has  obtained  renown  by  his  unexpected  longevity.     One  of 
those  brave  youths  was  wounded  so  desperately  that  he 

r/df  SrSi  ^omm'lng'SL''  '''^''  ^^  ^'^  "  ^'"'^^  ^''""«'*^^°"  ^^ 
m;L>if /rSrS?"^^'"'^"  ''^!^^'''  "^^  '^'''''^  ^^  ''^  ^W^^'  ^«'*  '^^ux  qui 
autre  frai/«ncn<.— Voltaire,  Essai  sur  les  Misur.^,  clx. 


i-w«i&J 


nn/* 


OF   THE    TURKS. 


225 


could  not  be  removed  from  the  burning  vessel ;  the  others 
might  have  escaped,  but  they  refused  to  abandon  their 
brother  in  his  extremity,  and  they  shared  his  fate.*  Of  the 
singularly  rapid  alternations  of  fortune  during  the  action, 
Pietro  Justiniani,  another  Venetian,  affords  a  very  remark- 
able instance.  Engaged  in  company  with  two  Maltese 
ships  against  Ulucci-Ali's  division,  he  sank  three  Turkish 
vessels^'and  pursued  a  fourth.  At  length  overpowered  by 
numbers,  he  received  quarter  from  a  Mussulman  by  whom 
he  was  boarded,  and  soon  afterward,  when  recaptured  by 
Doria,  he  was  able  to  extend  the  like  generous  protection  to 
his  recent  conqueror,  t 

The  superiority  of  the  Algerine   tactics   continued  to 
baffle  Doria  when  he  attempted,  too  late,  to  occupy  the  posi- 
tion which  he  ought  to  have  assumed  in  the  outset.  Ulucci- 
Ali,  having  gained  the  wind,  was  consequently  able  to  renew 
or  to  avoid  combat  at  pleasure;  and  perceiving  the  total 
rout  of  his  friends  in  the  centre,  and  that  a  large  division  of 
the  conquerors,  no  longer  needed  in  that  quarter,  was  ap- 
proaching him  on  one  side,  while  Doria  menaced  him  on 
the  other°  he  boldly  dashed  onward  through  the  line  which 
he  had  already  broken ;  made  for  the  Curzolari  and  Sta. 
Maura,  and  effected  his  retreat  with  between  twenty  and 
thirty  of  his  squadron.     This  small  remnant,  together  with 
a  reserve  of  about  an  equal  number  which  found  shelter 
within  the  depths  of  the  Gulf  of  Lepanto,  was  all  that  re- 
mained of  the  vast  Turkish  armament  after  five  hours'  bat- 
tle.    Fearful  indeed  was  it,  says  Contarini,  to  behold  the 
sea  discoloured  with  blood  and  shrouded  with  corpses  ;  and 
piteous  to  mark  the  numberless  wounded  wretches  tossed 
about  by  the  waves,  and  clinging  to  shattered  pieces  of 
wreck  !     Here  might  you  observe  Turks  and  Christians 
mingled  indiscriminately,  imploring  aid  while  they  sank  or 
swam  ;  orwret'tling  for  mastery,  perhaps  on  the  very  same 
plank.t     On  all  sides  were  heard  shouts,  or  groans,  or  cries 
of  misery ;  and  as  evening  closed,  and  darkness  began  to 
spread  over  the  waters,  so  much  more  was  the  spectacle  in- 
creased in  horror.*^ 

*  Gratianus,  lib.  iv.  p.  223.  t  Id.  p.  220. 

X  One  of  the  fine  groups  in  West's  picture  of  the  battle  of  La  Hogue 
bas  imbodied  this  description. 
^  Fol.  53,  b. 


\ 


iiTifirr     Tnv     at    VTTVTPU!- 


227 


i'l 


226 


DESCRIPTION   OF   ALl's    GALLEY. 


Within  an  hour  after  sunset,  the  Christian  fleet,  towing 
its  prizes,  had  gained  a  safe  anchorage  in  the  neighbouring 
harbour  of  Petala ;  where  it  rode  without  injury  through  a 
heavy  gale  which  sprang  up  during  the  night.  The  loss 
of  the  allies  in  killed  alone  amounted  to  nearly  eight  thou- 
sand men  :  of  the  Turks  more  than  twenty-five  thousand 
were  slain  ;  nearly  four  thousand,  among  whom  were  two 
sons  of  AH,  were  taken  prisoners  ;  twelve  thousand  Chris- 
tian slaves  were  released  ;  one  hundred  and  thirty  ships  of 
war  were  captured,  all  of  which,  with  their  abundant  stores 
and  equipments,  were  brought  to  port ;  one  hundred  and 
thirty  were  abandoned  and  destroyed,  and  about  eiirhty  were 
sunk  during  the  battle.*  ° 

Ali's  galley,  as  described  by  Knolles,  who  copies  from 
Bizar,  must  have  been  the  choicest  specimen  of  contempo- 
rary ship-building.     It  was  «  so  goodly  and  beautifull  a 
vessell,  that  for  beauty  and  richnesse  scarce  any  in  the 
whole  ocean  was  comparable  with  her.     The  decke  of  this 
gaily  was  on  both  sides  thrice  as  great  as  any  of  the  others, 
and  made  all  of  blacke  walnut-tree  like  unto  ebony,  check- 
ered,  and   wrought   marvellous    fuire,   with   divers   lively 
colours  and  variety  of  histories.     There  was  also  in  her 
divers  lively  counterfeits,  engraven  and  wrought  with  gold, 
with  so  cunning  a  hand,  that  for  the  magnificence  thereof 
It  might  well   have  been   compared   unto   some  prince's 
palace.    The  cabbin  glistened  in  every  place  with  rich  hang- 
ings wrought  with  gold  twist  and  set  with  divers  sorts  of 
precious  stones,  with  certaine  smull  counterfeits  most  cun- 
ningly wrought.     Besides  this  there  was  also  found  in  her 
great  store  of  the  Bassa's  rich  appnrell  wrought  with  the 
needle,  so  curiously  and  richly  embossed  with  silver  and 
gold  that  his  great  lord  and  master  Selymus  himselfe  could 

*  We  have  nearly  followed  Contarinl's  numbers,  who  states  the 
killed  among  the  allies  to  have  been  precisely  seven  thousand  six  hundred 
and  foriy-8ix,  of  whom  two  thousand  were  Spaniards,  eight  hundred 
Romans,  and  the  remainder  Venetians.  Among  these,  Venice  lost  one 
flag-offioer  (  ai>,fa>n,  Ut  fa„6),  Barbarigo,  and  seventeen  captains  The 
same  writer  calculates  the  Turks  kiil-d  at  iwenty-flve  thousand  one 
onH  Iri.*"*^'""";-^'"  n  "■■'  *'•*'•■  prisoners  at  three  thousand  four  hundred 

?elisfd  ?rnm  •.h'""''''V^y'>^"'^'^  •*'""*''*"'l  *'»'"'^''^»  slaves  were 
re  eased  from  the  oar.  Jusimiani  (ifteen  thousand.    Daru  reduces  tho 

Se  hi^ aShontyf  '°  '''''•'"  '^""^  ^'^  ^''  ^'^°'^^^"'^'  '^"^  ^^^^  ^^^ 


228 


PTM^T  TT'TTT/^-iVc      rkXT 


GREAT   JOY    AT    VENICE. 


227 


hardly  put  on  more  royal  or  rich  attire."     The  pacha  fell 
by  the  hand  of  a  Macedonian  in  the  service  of  the  Venetian 
arsenal,  who  was  knighted  by  Don  John,  and  received  a 
more  substantial  reward  in  a  pension  of  three  hundred 
ducats,  and  the  casket  of  the  slain  Mussulman  leader,  con- 
taining six  thousand  more.     To  the  same  fortunate  soldier 
also  was  allotted,  as  his  spoil,  the  massive  silver-gilt  staff 
(the  burrell,  as  Knolles  terms  it)  of  the  pacha's  standard. 
It  was  covered  with  Turkish  inscriptions:  "Allah  guides 
and  aids  his  faithful  in  worthy  enterprises ;  Allah  favours 
Mohammed;"    and   another   more    familiar  to   our   ears, 
"  There  is  but  one  God,  and  Mohammed  is  his  prophet. 
The  Greek,  on  his  return  to  Venice,  sold  this  prize  to  a 
goldsmith,  from  whom  it  was  redeemed  by  the  senate  at 
the  cost  of  one  ducat  for  each  ounce  ;  a  price  which  appears 
to  be  recorded  as  inordinate,  but  which  a  just  feeling  of 
national  pride  could  deem  scarcely  more  than  the  value  of 
so  distinguished  a  trophy.* 

Veniero  hastened  to  announce  this  glad  intelligence  to 
his  countrymen,  and  so  speedily  was  it  conveyed,  that  on 
the  tenth  morning  after  the  battle  the  vessel  bearing  his 
despatches  entered  the  port  of  Lido.     It  arrived  off  land 
at  the  hour  in  which  the  Piazza  di  San  Marco  is  most  fre- 
quented ;  and  much  surprise  and  anxiety  was  at  first  ex- 
cited by  the  appearance  of  a  ship  of  war  steering  between 
the  two  castles,  and  crowded  on  its  deck  by  mariners  and 
soldiers  in  Turkish  uniforms,  with  which  the  crew  bad 
clothed  themselves  out  of  their  spoils.     The  vessel  saluted 
the  forts  as  she  passed ;  and  the  brief  doubt  of  the  popn- 
lace  was  rapidly  converted  into  enthusiastic  joy  when  Mus- 
sulman  standards   were    descried    trailing    at   her   stem. 
Shouts  of  "  Victory"  hailed  the  landing  of  the  messenger, 
and  happy  were  those  among  the   delighted  throng  who 
could  kiss  his  hand  or  touch  even  his  cloak.    They  escorted 
him  to  his  own  home,  round  which  so  great  was  the  pres- 
sure of  the  multitudes  who  besieged  its  doors,  that  his 
mother,  when  she  learned  the  full  extent  of  her  joy,  could 
obtain  access  only  by  tears  and  entreaties,  in  order  that  she 
might  greet  and  embrace  her  son.t     Long  was  it  befoie 


!1 


*  Bizar,  p.  257,  266.    Knolles,  p.  864. 
j-  Gratianus,  lib.  iv.  p.  229. 


228 


REFLECTIONS    ON 


men's  minds  could  accommodate  themselves  to  a  complete 
belief  in  the  unheard-of  triumph  which  he  related.     The 
doge  and  his  cortege  proceeded  at  once  to  St.  Mark's,  where 
they  heard  Te  Deum  chanted,  and  celebrated  high  mass. 
Solemn  processions  of  four  days'  continuance  were  com- 
manded throughout  the  Venetian  dominions ;  and  during 
many  succeeding  evenings  the  several  guilds  of  the  capital, 
especially  the  rich  companies  of  woollen  and  silk  manu- 
facturers, and  the  German  merchants,  paraded  through  the 
chief  streets  with  splendid  pageants  ;  and  passed  the  niwht 
with  music  and  revelry  in  illuminated  booths,  adorned  as 
we  are  assured  with  pictures  by  Raffaelle,  Michael  Antrelo, 
and  Titian.    The  feast  of  Sta.  Justina,  on  which  the  battle 
had  been  fought,  was  set  apart  as  a  perpetual  anniversary, 
and  distinguished  by  an  andata  to  the  church  dedicated  to 
that  holy  virgin ;   and  a  coinage  was  issued  from  the  mint, 
in  which  the  legend — Memor  ero  iui  Justina  virgo — seems 
to  have  been  more  calculated  to  record  the  saint  than  the 
victory.     Tintoretto  received  instructions  for  a  picture  of 
the  battle  to  decorate  the  public  library  ;  funeral  orations 
were  pronounced  in  St.  Mark's  over  the  slain;  and  Justi- 
niani  speaks  with  very  favourable  criticism  of  one  of  those 
speeches  delivered  by  Giovanni  Battista  Resario.*  Another, 
which  was  written,  we  know  not  whether  it  was  spoken,  by 
the  historian  Paruta,  may  be  found  at  the  end  of  his  larger 
work  ;   it  is   a  cold  and  laboured  composition,  dilating  far 
more  upon  the  noble  origin  of  the  republic,  her  long  and 
inviolate  independence,  and  the  unrivalled  excellences  of 
her  constitution,  than  upon  that  which  the  occasion  obvi- 
ously demanded, — the  merits  of  the  illustrious  dead. 

It  has  been  usual  loudly  to  condemn  the  remissness  of 
the  allies  after  this  splendid  triumph,  to  tax  them  with  igno- 
rance of  the  means  by  which  profit  might  be  drawn  from  the 
bounty  of  propitious  fortune,  and  to  assert  that  the  victory 
of  Lepanto  was  wholly  without  results.    In  defence  of  their 

*  Lib.  xvi.  p.  456.  In  a  page  or  two  before,  the  same  historian  has 
mentioned,  with  exquisite  simplicity,  that  because  he  sometimes  culti- 
vated the  muse  in  her  poetical  as  well  as  in  her  prosaic  garb,  he  him- 
seir  penned  some  verses  in  commemoration  of  this  great  victory  It 
may  be  sufficient,  without  citation,  to  state  that  Acheious,  Maleus,  Glau- 
^^'  ^""i^on,  and  Amphitrite  are  introduced  in  the  narrow  compass  of 
nneen  hexameters,  and  made  to  weep  over  the  departed  heroes. 


THE  BATTLE  OF  LEPANTO. 


220 


inaction  it  may  be  pleaded  that  when  immediate  operations 
were  proposed,  so  great  had  been  the  havoc  that  no  more 
than  five  thousand  troops  were  found  disposable  for  service. 
Whether  the  battle  were  indeed  fruitless  may  be  decided  by 
inquiring  what  would  have  been  the  fate  of  Europe  if  the 
infidels  had  conquered  ]  What  new  barrier  was  Christen- 
dom prepared  to  raise  against  the  establishment,  in  her  fair- 
est portion,  of  the  despotism  of  the  Ottomans — perhaps  of 
the  imposture  of  their  prophet  1  Paruta  wisely  compares 
the  victory  of  Lepanto  with  that  of  Salamis,"  wherein, 
though  the  Greeks  did,  with  incredible  valour,  overcome  the 
mighty  Prince  Xerxes  his  fleet,  they  did  not  yet  reap  any 
more  signall  advantage  thereby  than  of  having  delivered 
Greece  for  that  time  from  the  imminent  danger  of  being  en- 
slaved by  barbarians."*  And  in  either  case  was  such  a  de- 
liverance nothing  ?  No  sooner  was  their  total  defeat  an- 
nounced at  Constantinople,  than  the  Turks,  seized  with 
consternation,  meditated  the  abandonment  of  their  city ; 
and,  as  if  the  conquerors  were  already  at  the  gates,  they 
traversed  the  streets  with  terror  and  despair ;  asking  the 
Christian  residents  whether,  when  their  victorious  brethren 
had  established  themselves  in  the  capital,  they  would  per- 
mit its  present  possessors  to  live  in  it  after  their  own  laws 
and  institutions,  on  the  payment  of  a  tribute  1  But  there 
were  good  reasons  why  those  fears  should  prove  groundless. 
The  allies,  as  we  have  already  shown,  were  too  much  en- 
feebled to  prosecute  active  operations  ;  and  it  may  be  per- 
ceived, besides,  by  those  who  discover  something  more  than 
hyman  agency  in  the  mighty  labyrinth  of  history,  that  it  was 
neither  for  their  own  glory  that  the  Christians  were  per- 
mitted to  conquer,  nor  for  their  own  merit  that  the  Turks 
were  saved  from  utter  extinction.  In  the  words  of  an  acute 
writer,  whose  unravelment  is  the  more  sure,  because  the 
philosophy  by  which  he  has  attained  it  is  purified  and 
strengthened  by  a  sober  piety,  "  It  is  an  instructive  fact, 
that  the  intervention  of  Providence  appeared  no  less  con- 
spicuously in  the  preservation  of  the  Turkish  power,  at  an 
earlier  period  (after  the  battle  of  Lepanto)  for  the  correction 
of  Europe,  than  in  its  repression  by  the  arms  of  Sobieski 
for  its  deliverance.^^  f 

*  Henry  Earl  of  Monmouth,  p.  145. 

r  Forster,  J\Iahometanism  Unvfiled,  ii.  483,  and  the  passafe  from 

Vol.  II.— TJ 


230 


SPEEDY  RECOVERY  OF  THE  TURKS. 


l! 


I) 


•\  i 


1/ 


The  season,  in  truth,  was  much  too  far  advanced  to  alloty 
any  further  prosecution  of  the  campaign,  even  if  the  equip- 
ment of  the  allies  had  been  unimpaired  ;  and  breaking  up 
for  the  approaching  winter,  Don  John  sailed  for  Messina, 
to  repose  upon  his  richly  deserved  laurels,  while  the  Vene- 
tians resumed  their  station  in  Corfu.     Not  so  easily,  how- 
A.  7>.     ^^^^^  ^^P^  ^^  excuse  the  weak  and  tardy  measures 
1572.    which  disgraced  the  following  year;  but  Venice  by 
no  means  participates  in  the  blame   attaching  to 
them.     Her  preparations  were  completed  on  a  large  scale 
early  in  the  spring  ;  and  in  order  to  conciliate  Don  John, 
who  had  not  yet  been  cordially  reconciled  to  Veniero,  that 
gallant  officer,  with  little  regard  for  his  late  distinguished 
services,  was  appointed  to  a  separate  command,  and  re- 
placed  by  Giacopo  Foscarini ;  who,  while  awaiting  the  slow 
promised  junction  of  the  Spaniards,  made  a  bold  but  abor- 
tive attempt  on  Castel  Nuovo,  in  the  bay  of  Cattaro.     So 
great,  on  the  other  hand,  were  the  advantages  gained  by 
the  Turks,  on  recovery  from  their  first  natural  panic,  by 
these  miserable  delays  and  petty  jealousies  of  the  confede- 
rates, so  unbroken  was  their  vigour,  so  undiminished  their 
resources,  that  after  the  destruction  of  almost  their  whole 
navy  in  the  proce<ling  October,  Ulucci-Ali,  now  Capudan 
Pacha,  sailed  from  Constantinople  in  March,  with  two  hun- 
dred galleys,  to  menace  and  insult  Candia.     True  indeed 
was  that  which  Knolles  calls  "  a  witty  and  fit  comparison" 
made  by  one  of  the  cnief  Turkish  prisoners,  Mohammed 
Pacha  of  Negropont ;    "  that  the  battell  loste  was  unto 
Selymus  as  if  a  man  should  shave  his  bearde,  which  would 
ere  long  grow  again  ;  but  that  the  losse  of  Cyprus  was  unto 
the  Venetians  as  the  losse  of  an  arme,  which  once  cut  olfe 
could  never  be  againe  recovered."* 

Gratianus,  from  whom  this  anecdote  is  borrowed,  relates 
another  equally  pointed  saying  of  the  same  ready  Mussul- 
man. He  appears  to  have  been  confined  at  Rome,  where 
the  papal  Admiral  Colonna,  one  day  visiting  his  quarters, 
bade  him  learn  from  the  generous  treatment  which  he  then 

Libertus  Folieta  there  cited,  which  we  have  paraprhrased  in  thetexi— the 
consternation  of  the  Turks,  of  which  that  historian  speaks,  is  confirmed 
by  (^atianus  also,  de  Bella  Cm.  lib.  iv.  p.  240. 
*  Page  885. 


VENICE  MAKES  a'sEPARATE  PEACE.  231 

experienced,  hereafter  to  mitigate  the  cruelty  used  by  the 
Turks  towards  their  captives.  The  pacha,  in  return,  im- 
plored his  excellency's  pardon,  and  excused  the  ignorance 
of  his  countrymen,  on  the  score  of  their  little  practice  as 

prisoners.*  ,       .     ,    -   .    . 

The  allies  also  put  to  sea,  notwithstandmg  the  mfenority 
of  their  numbers,  for  out  of  the  hundred  ships  which  Philip 
II.  had  promised  as  his  contingent,  not  more  than  twenty- 
two  were  as  yet  furnished.     Each  party  shrank  from  the 
hazard  of  a  general  battle  ;  the  confederates  on  account  of 
their  weakness,  the  Turks  still  smarting  from  their  recent 
overthrow  ;  so  that  although  the  hostile  fleets  were  more 
than  once  in  each  other's  presence  in  the  course  of  the 
summer,  they  separated  after  partial  skirmishes.     Septem- 
ber had  nearly  passed  before  Don  John  resumed  the  com- 
mand of  an  armament  which  then  outnumbered  the  Turks  ; 
and  Modon  and  Navarino  were  proposed  as  objects  of  at- 
tack ;  the  latter,  a  port  fertile  in  ancient  remembrances,  and 
destined  in  our  own  times  to  bestow  a  rich  harvest  of  glory 
on  other  combined  fleets.     One  of  those  designs  was  aban- 
doned, the  other  was  unsuccessful ;  and  at  the  dechne  of 
the  year,  the  confederates  parted  as  before,  after  a  wholly 
inconclusive  campaign.  This  irresolute  and  unsatis-     ^   ^^ 
factory  conduct  of  the  Spanish  court  justly  irritated    j^^g^ 
both  the  pope  and  the  Venetians,  and  the  haughty 
dismissal  of  their  remonstrances  tended  to  increase  disgust. 
Nor  was  it  long  before  the  dilatoriness  of  the  pontiff"  him- 
self, in  furnishing  his  share  of  contribution  to  the  general 
purse,  destroyed  whatever  little  good-will  continued  among 
the  allies  ;  so  that  the  league,  although  nominally  exislmg, 
had  virtually  terminated,  when  the  divan  obliquely  signified 
an  inclination  to  negotiate  separately  with  Venice.     After  a 
lingering  discussion  a  treaty  to  the  following  eflfect  was 
ratified  in  March.     Cyprus  was  wholly  abandoned  to  the 
Porte  ;  the  fortress  of  Sopoto,  the  single  conquest  made  by 
Venice  m  Albania,  was  restored  :  and  the  republic  con- 
sented to  pay  a  tribute  of  one  hundred  thousand  ducats 
during  the  next  three  years— a  condition  upon  which  Selim, 
who  felt  how  materially  its  attainm<mt  would  increase  his 
reputation,  peremptorily  insisted.     The  pope  received  intel- 

*  Lib,  V.  p.  220. 


ii 

'i  I 


230 


SPEEDY  RECOVERY  OF  THE  TURKS. 


VENICE  MAKES  A  SEPARATE  PEACE. 


231 


I' 

^'1 


A.    I>. 

1572. 
them. 


/ 


The  season,  in  truth,  was  much  too  far  advanced  to  alloxr 
any  further  prosecution  of  the  campaign,  even  if  the  equip- 
ment of  the  allies  had  been  unimpaired  ;  and  breaking  up 
for  the  approaching  winter,  Don  John  sailed  for  Messina, 
to  repose  upon  his  richly  deserved  laurels,  while  the  Vene- 
tians resumed  their  station  in  Corfu.     Not  so  easily,  how- 
ever, can  we  excuse  the  weak  and  tardy  measures 
which  disgraced  the  following  year;  but  Venice  by 
no  means  participates  in  the  blame   attaching  to 
Her  preparations  were  completed  on  a  large  scale 
early  in  the  spring  ;  and  in  order  to  conciliate  Don  John, 
who  had  not  yet  been  cordially  reconciled  to  Veniero,  that 
gallant  officer,  with  little  regard  for  his  late  distinguished 
services,  was  appointed  to  a  separate  command,  and  re- 
placed by  Giacopo  Foscarini ;  who,  while  awaiting  the  slow 
promised  junction  of  the  Spaniards,  made  a  bold  but  abor- 
tive attempt  on  Castel  Nuovo,  in  the  bay  of  Cattaro.     So 
great,  on  the  other  hand,  were  the  advantages  gained  by 
the  Turks,  on  recovery  from  their  first  natural  panic,  by 
these  miserable  delays  and  petty  jealousies  of  the  confede- 
rates, so  unbroken  was  their  vigour,  so  undiminished  their 
resources,  that  after  the  destruction  of  almost  their  whole 
navy  in  the  preceding  October,  Ulucci-Ali,  now  Capudan 
Pacha,  sailed  from  Constantinople  in  March,  with  two  hun- 
dred galleys,  to  menace  and  insult  Candia.     True  indeed 
was  that  which  Knolles  calls  "  a  witty  and  fit  comparison" 
made  by  one  of  the  chief  Turkish  prisoners,  Mohammed 
Pacha  of  Negropont ;    "  that  the  battell  loste  was  unto 
Selymus  as  if  a  man  should  shave  his  bearde,  which  would 
ere  long  grow  again  ;  but  that  the  losse  of  Cyprus  was  unto 
the  Venetians  as  the  losse  of  an  arme,  which  once  cut  offe 
could  never  be  againe  recovered."* 

Gratianus,  from  whom  this  anecdote  is  borrowed,  relates 
another  equally  pointed  saying  of  the  same  ready  Mussul- 
man. He  appears  to  have  been  confined  at  Rome,  where 
the  papal  Admiral  Colonna,  one  day  visiting  his  quarters, 
bade  him  learn  from  the  generous  treatment  which  he  then 

Libertus  Folieta  there  cited,  which  we  have  paraphrased  in  the  text— the 
consternation  of  the  Turks,  0.'"  which  that  historian  speaks,  is  confirmed 
by  bratianus  also,  de  Bello  Oup.  lib.  iv.  p.  240. 
*  Page  885. 


experienced,  hereafter  to  mitigate  the  cruelty  used  by  the 
Turks  towards  their  captives.  The  pacha,  in  return,  im- 
plored his  excellency's  pardon,  and  excused  the  ignorance 
of  his  countrymen,  on  the  score  of  their  little  practice  as 

prisoners.*  .    . 

The  allies  also  put  to  sea,  notwithstanding  the  inferiority 
of  their  numbers,  for  out  of  the  hundred  ships  which  Philip 
n.  had  promised  as  his  contingent,  not  more  than  twenty- 
two  were  as  yet  furnished.     Each  party  shrank  from  the 
hazard  of  a  general  battle  ;  the  confederates  on  account  of 
their  weakness,  the  Turks  still  smarting  from  their  recent 
overthrow  ;  so  that  although  the  hostile  fleets  were  more 
than  once  in  each  other's  presence  in  the  course  of  the 
summer,  they  separated  after  partial  skirmishes.     Septem- 
ber had  nearly  passed  before  Don  John  resumed  the  com- 
mand of  an  armament  which  then  outnumbered  the  Turks  ; 
and  Modon  and  Navarino  were  proposed  as  objects  of  at- 
tack ;  the  latter,  a  port  fertile  in  ancient  remembrances,  and 
destined  in  our  own  times  to  bestow  a  rich  harvest  of  glory 
on  other  combined  fleets.     One  of  those  designs  was  aban- 
doned, the  other  was  unsuccessful ;  and  at  the  decline  of 
the  year,  the  confederates  parted  as  before,  after  a  wholly 
inconclusive  campaign.  This  irresolute  and  unsatis-     ^   ^^ 
factory  conduct  of  the  Spanish  court  justly  irritated    jg^g] 
both  the  pope  and  the  Venetians,  and  the  haughty 
dismissal  of  their  remonstrances  tended  to  increase  disgust. 
Nor  was  it  long  before  the  dilatoriness  of  the  pontiff  him- 
self, in  furnishing  his  share  of  contribution  to  the  general 
purse,  destroyed  whatever  little  good-will  continued  among 
the  allies  ;  so  that  the  league,  although  nominally  existing, 
had  virtually  terminated,  when  the  divan  obliquely  signified 
an  inclination  to  negotiate  separately  with  Venice.     After  a 
lingering  discussion  a  treaty  to  the  following  effect  was 
ratified  in  March.     Cyprus  was  wholly  abandoned  to  the 
Porte  ;  the  fortress  of  Sopoto,  the  single  conquest  made  by 
Venice  m  Albania,  was  restored  :  and  the  republic  con- 
sented to  pay  a  tribute  of  one  hundred  thousand  ducats 
during  the  next  three  years— a  condition  upon  which  Selim, 
who  felt  how  materially  its  attainment  would  increase  his 
reputation,  peremptorily  insisted.     The  pope  received  intel- 

*  Lib.  V.  p.  220. 


^■M' 


'^^^^'S^w^' 


232    BARRENNESS  OF  THE  NEXT  PERIOD. 

Hgence  of  this  peace  with  unreasonable  indimiation  •  the 
King  of  Spain  honestly  admitted  its  necessity^nd  i^sVt! 

mu"h  ll/tifr  \"'  '^'''^f  commentatorL^sloryTS 
much  later  t  mes,  has  remarked,  that  by  its  conditions   it 

appeared  as  if  the  Turks  rather  than  tL  Chrltiarhad 
been  conquerors  in  the  battle  of  Lepanto.*    '^'''''^'^"'  ^^^ 


VISIT  OF   HENRY  III.   OF  FRANCE. 


233 


CHAPTER  XVIII. 

PROM  A.  D.  1573  TO  A.  D.   1617. 

TheAlrhvmio.D        J-        w    ^^PP®''°~^"'ance  with  Heiirv  IV  — 

lu'emif  0?  he  Srr^^  ^^"'  V.-Triumph  or  v'enire- 

of  the  Uscocchi.  ^^'"'^  ^rpi-Apology  of  James  I.-War 


A.  D. 


1576. 

LXXXVIll. 

1578. 

LXXXIX. 

1585. 

XC. 

1595. 

XCI. 

1606. 

XCII. 

1612. 

xciir. 

1616. 

XCIV. 

DOGES. 

LuiGI  MoXCENlGO. 

Sebastiano  Veniero. 
NicoLo  Dapoxte. 
Pascale  Cicogna. 
Marino  Grimant. 
Leonardo  Donato. 
Marc'  Antonio  Memmo. 
Giovanni  Bembo. 


next  forty  years,  our  attention  is  chiefly  invited  bv  ronr.™ 

S  of 'thT"^'  T,*"^'''""/  -o-h  tL" rrl'LToTthJ 
annals  of  the  republic  ;  and  the  siege  of  Fama<rost»  =nH 

the  triumph  of  Lepan.o  stand  out  in  highly  rehl^d  con' 

*  Voltaire,  ut  supra. 


trast  vrith  the  festivities  on  the  reception  of  a  foreign  prince, 
and  the  conduct  of  a  war  of  pamphlets  against  the  holy 

see. 

In  the  year  following  the  Turkish  peace,  on  the  death 
of  his  brother  Charles  IX.,  Henry  HI.   stealthily     ^   ^ 
quitted  his  Polish  throne  for  that  of  France  ;  and  in    j^^^* 
his  passage  to  his  new  dominions  through  Venice,  a 
route  which  he  selected  in  order  to  avoid  the  Protestant 
states  of  the  empire,  he  was  entertained  by  the  signory  with 
a  mawnificence  upon  which  the  native  writers  have  de- 
lighted to  expatiate.     Having  been  conducted  by  the  whole 
body  of  senators,  each  attired  in  his  robes  of  office  and 
rowed  in  his  own  gondola,  from  Malghera  to  Murano,  the 
king  was  visited  on  the  following  morning  by  the  doge,  in 
the  customary  pomp  of  the  Bucentaur.     Each  prince,  as  we 
are  told,  on  a{)proaching  his  brother  sovereign,  raised  his 
bonnet  and  uncovered  himself  precisely  at  the  same  mo- 
ment ;  and  Henry,  having  first  ennobled*  all  the  artificers 
at  the  glass-works,  as  a  token  of  approbation  of  their  great 
skill,  embarked  on  board  a  new  and  gorgeous  galley,  con- 
structed purposely  for  his  transport,  in  which  the  three 
hundred  and  fifty-four  Sclavonians  who  formed  its  crew 
appeared  clad  in  the  French  monarch's  livery.     The  illus- 
trious companv,  passing  round  by  Lido,  attended  mass  per- 
formed by  the'  patriarch  in  the  church  of  San  Nicolo,  and 
then  proceeded  to  the  noble  palace  of  the  Foscari,  on  the 
Great   Canal,  which,    together  with  the  two  contiguous 
mansions  of  the  Giustiniani,  was  assigned  to  the  king  as  a 
residence.     Thirty  patrician  youths  were  selected  as  his 
personal  attendants  ;  whenever  he  went  abroad  his  canopy 
was  supported  by  six  provvedtfori ;  and  the  city  resounded 
by  day  with  music  and  shouts  of  joy,  and  glittered  by  night 
with  illuminated  streets  and  adulatory  emblems  blazing  in 
d.rtirici3.1  nrG 

The  house  of  Valois  had  long  since  been  enrolled  in  the 
Golden  Book,  and  Henry,  claiming  his  privilege  of  nobility, 
assisted  at  a  sitting  of  the  Great  Council.  In  that  assem- 
bly, the  urns  containing  the  gold  and  silver   balls,  the 

*  By  some  titular  distinction,  about  which  the  signory  was  carelesa. 
It  was  a  privilege,  the  exercise  of  which  appears  to  have  been  much 
affecttd  by  foreign  princes  on  tbelr  travels. 


234 


THE   NICOLOTI   AND   CASTELLANI. 


4i  H\ 


I! 


U 


chance  distribution  of  which  decided  the  primary  electors 
of  the  Pregadi,  were  offered  to  him  uncovered,  and  when 
exercising  his  right  thus  obtained,  he  nominated  Gilcopc^ 
Contarmi,  more  than  a  thousand  votes  in  the  subseaueM 
ballot  confirmed  the  royal  choice.      On  another  mo?nin' 
the  venerable  Titian  received  the  monarch  in  his  JS 
presented  him  with  some  choice  pictures,  and  entertlhted 
his  suite  with  splendour.     A  more  bois  erous  entSn. 
ment  was  prepared   for  the   illustrious   guest,  when   he 
viewed  from  his  balcony  a  pugilistic  combat  between  the 
iVzcoJo/j  and  the  Castellam;  thi  two  popular  factTons  into 
which  the  rabble  and  the  gondoliers  of  Venice  are  in  the 
habit  of  dividing  themselves,  according  to  the  particular 
half  of  the  city  m  which  they  happen  \o  be  born      Two 
hundred  champions  on  either  side  contested  the  brid<re  dci 
Carmm  by  the  prowess  of  their  fists;   some  blood  was 
harmlessly  drawn,  and  many  of  the  leaders  were  precTol! 
tated  into  the  canal   below,  much  to  the  delight Tf  the 
princely  and  noble  spectators;  till  Henry,  willina  to  con! 
tent   both  parties  by   leaving  victoiy  undecideS;  gave  a 
signal  for  suspension  of  hostilities.*    Among  the  winders 

^n^!^"tS: etZy^ZTZ^^^^^^  "^--i-  «»^'-  that 

editlm  (lib.  xii  593?  Trso,  i  \va  ?o.urrr??o  Ll'""!  ^'^'"'''  ^''''^^^' 
mission  of  any  weapon  was  ^SufSH    ^^"^'■"'."^^ge,  for  the  ad- 

passion  for  hLugT^,nlt^Trot^^^^  Z  'v '"  ?''  '^''''^-    ^he 

among  ourselves:  and  the^min^ihyh.1^1%^^  ^  '^  do«8 

a  pitched  battle  between  two  combaianK^  C  Z.c  ,  .^-  ^^^^^^"^y 
ported  that  it  was  covvardly  t^sSe  a  man  wh.  ^?  """'^^  °f  "^'""^  ''»- 
blood  decided  the  victory  •   that  a»L?  Sri  ?"'''" '  "'a' the  first 

either  side,  they  must  part  f  iends     that  wL'?"''"  Ti^°"^  ^^'^  «« 

tagonist  into  thl  watenSe^a  doub  e  victorv  and  ?h '?  r'"""^::  1^  «"- 
mounted  the  bridge  without  meeting  Jivrn.'  ^i^l' '^'*  ^^^^'«"ger 
greatestofail  honours  "i^^,J'/^^''"^/">  opponent,  he  obtained  The 
Ordinata  /'i/i^rrnrearTHn/.H  h;Mf ^""'^'■''"''^"''t«'•  ^^ numbers.    3. 

thetext,i.iX1;.'hoTeX'wl'p'ote;Son^  ''''V'''  '" 

victorious.    All  these  fights  were  riuS?rdhvnf^^'' T'^ '^^ 
the  two  parties  themselves  and  nam^i  p.        ^  '^?*'^"  *'*^°^^»  among 


DEATH   OF   TITIAN. 


235 


exhibited  at  the  arsenal,  which  the  royal  guest  next  visited, 
was  the  construction  and  equipment  of  an  entire  galley 
from  its  various  pieces  of  framework  prepared  beforehand, 
while  he  partook  of  a  collation.*  Nor  has  it  been  omitted, 
to  the  glory  of  the  Venetian  confectionary,  that  the  table 
on  that  occasion  was  decorated  with  rare  but  most  uncom- 
fortable appointments, — the  fruits,  napkins,  knives,  forks, 
and  plates  being  formed  of  sugar.  At  a  subsequent  ban- 
quet in  the  ducal  palace,  three  hundred  groups  of  the  same 
frail  material,  nymphs,  lions,  ships,  and  griffins,  delighted 
the  eyes  of  the  men  and  the  palates  of  the  ladies  ;  to  which 
latter  we  are  assured  they  were  presented  most  gallantly, 
per  favore.  After  eight  days  of  laborious  pleasure,  the 
King  of  France  quitted  the  Adriatic  with  lavish  expressions 
of  gratitude ;  and  the  senate  considered  it  worth  while  to 
inform  posterity  of  his  abode  in  their  capital,  by  a  wordy 
inscription  on  a  marble  tablet,  which  still  fronts  the  eye  at 
the  summit  of  the  Giant's  Stairs.t 

The  death  of  Titian,  more  regretted  and  more  remem- 
bered than  those  of  all  his  forty  thousand  fellow-citizens  to 
whom  the  same  plague  proved  fatal,  gives  unhappy 
distinction  to  the  following  year;  and  during  the    ^cyc' 
ravages  of  that  pestilence  the  very  question  which 

Mayor  of  Garrat,  was  invested  with  a  mock  authority,  and  attended  the 
andata  of  the  marriage  of  the  sea  with  a  burlesque  court  Victory  in 
these  contests  was  hijrhly  esteemed,  and  the  women  of  the  beaten  party 
often  drove  their  husbands  from  their  homes,  witli  loud  reproaches  for 
their  dishonour.  "•  Va  via  di  qiin,  porcn,  ivfamcvituperoso!" — (An- 
tonio de  Ville,  Pyctomachia  ap.  Graevii  Thes.  vol.  v.  pars  post.  p.  368.) 

*  This  feat,  liowever  surprising,  was  perhaps  exceeded  when  George 
III.  visited  Portsmouth  aHer  Lord  Howe's  victory,  in  1794.  On  that  oc- 
casion a  ninety-eight  gun  .ship  was  launched,  broiiglit  into  a  wet  dock, 
and  completely  calked  and  copjiered,  altogether  in  nine  hours,  in  order 
to  exhibit  the  various  jjrocesses  to  the  king. 

t  Ben  Jonson  has  marked  the  chronology  of  the  plot  in  his  master- 
piece Volpone,  (what  language  presents  a  more  noble  draraa?)  by  sume 
lines  allusive  to  these  festivities : 

— ■ — ——I  am  now  as  fresh, 

As  hot,  as  high,  and  in  as  jovial  plight, 

As  when,  in  that  so  celebrated  scene 

At  recitation  of  our  comedy. 

For  entertainment  of  the  great  Valoys, 

I  acted  young  Antinous. 

In  another  place (ii.  1),  Percgine  tells  Sir  Politick  Would-be  "that  the 
lioness  in  the  Tower  of  London  has  whelped  a  becond  time/'  an  event 
which  also  occurred  in  1606. 


236 


GREAT   PLAGUE. 


THE    RIALTO. 


237 


^ 


VJ 


^ 


has  been  again  so  much  contested  of  late  years  araonff  dif- 
fering medical  practitioners,  was  discussed  in  the  presencfl 
of  the  signory.  by  the  physicians  of  Padua  and'v'nrce! 
Ihe  former  denied,  the  latter  asserted,  the  doctrine  of  con! 
tagion  ;  and  the  senate  littlo  qualified  to  pronounce  a  scien- 
tific  judgment,  halted  for  a  long  time  between  the  conflict- 
ng  opmions ;  till  the  boldness  of  the  Paduans,  who  fear- 
lessly exposed  themselves  to  all  hazards  in  the  chambers 
of  the  sick  and  dying,  for  a  time  unhappily  prevailed.     Four 
days,  however,  had  scarcely  passed  after  the  relaxation 
rJT^  precautions,  before  the  frightful  disease  spread 
rapidly  through  those  sestieri  of  the  city  which  had  hitherto 
escaped   infection :    yet  notwithstanding   this   calamitous 
practical  rebutment  of  their  principle,  Ihe  death  of  oL 
of  their  own  body,  and  the  disgrace  and  dismissal  of  the 
firs'  erro^'.'hT  F^"''''  '^  obstinately  persisted  in  their 
thp«T    ['     .       ^T  "^"'^  ^^^'^  ^^«  wished  to  pursue 
mo^?nI  7v  T    P^"^'^^^«-*     C^^^«t  as  was  the  surrounding 
mortality,  the  magistrates  remnined  undismayed   at  their 
respective   posts  ;    and,   although   not  unfrequently  some 
noble  who  had  addressed  the  council  in  the  niorniL  w^s 

ot  the  senate  were  on  no  occasion  intermitted.  Terror 
was  at  Its  height,  human  aid  was  powerless,  and  hope  had 
failed  when  Monccnigo,  after  solemn  mass  in  St  Mrfs 
registered  a  vow-^in  the  presence  of  as  many  c  i^ens  as 
himT/f  •'  f^'r^'^'  -Pital  permitted  to  Jather  round 
him,-to  found  and  dedicate,  in  the  name  of  the  republic  a 

ousTv  aid  ^rT'  ''"  ''^?^^""^'  ''  -^«-  it  'un  p^u! 
ously,  and  to  perform  a  yearly  andala  to  it,  on  the  return 

of  the  day  on  which  Venice  should  become  free  from  Ser 

present  scourge.     If  we  are  to  believe  Morosini'  f  om  thL 

hour  amendment  commenced  with  a  miraculous  speed -foj 

although  on   the  morning  before  the  vow  two   hundred 

ciTr^d  ::irwr^  '^  ^',^  ^^""^"'  f«-  -»y  - "-  "- 

ve\r  tl.      •         "^^'"^  succeeded.     Before  the  close  of  the 
year  he  city  was  restored  to  health,  and  Palladio  was  en! 

fhurchofZV".  ')'  ""'^'"^^  '''  "^^'-t  ornamrnt  the 
cnurch  of  the  Redentore,  appropriated  to  the  Capucins.f 

*  Jfaurocenus,  lib.  xii.  p.  626. 

uuruig  u  piague  m  1630 ;  the  first  stone  was  laid  on  the 


The  lofty  deserts  of  Sebastiano  Veniero,  the  conqueror 
of  Lepanto,  were  rewarded  by  the  ducal  bonnet  on  the 
death  of  Moncenigo ;  but  he  enjoyed  the  prize  only 
for  a  short  time,  and  his  brief  reign  was  marked  by  ,  /„„* 
a  great  public  calamity.  The  ducal  palace,  with  the 
exception  of  its  outer  walls,  was  burned  to  the  ground  by  a 
fire  which,  but  for  the  seasonable  fall  of  the  roof,  would 
probably  have  involved  in  like  destruction  the  mint,  the 
library,  and  St.  Mark's  itself.  One  part  of  the  loss  conse- 
quent on  this  disaster  was  wholly  irreparable,  that  of  the 
historical  pictures  which  decorated  many  apartments ;  the 
subjects  however  were  repainted,  and  in  most  instances 
with  great  skill.  The  government  also  had  sufficiently 
good  taste  to  leave  untouched  the  original  shell  of  the 
palace,  as  designed  by  Filippo-Calendario  in  the  reign 
of  Marino  Faliero  ;  and  to  rebuild  within  its  most  imposing, 
although  perhaps  somewhat  grotesque,  fa9ades,  the  irregu- 
larly magnificent  pile  which  still  avouches  with  proud  testi- 
mony the  ancient  majesty  of  the  fallen  republic.  During 
the  remainder  of  this  century  the  embellishment  of  the 
capital  proceeded  rapidly ;  the  Piazza  di  San  Marco  was 
completed,  and  the  wooden  bridge,  which,  during  three 
hundred  years,  had  formed  the  sole  communication  between 
the  two  great  divisions  of  the  city,  was  replaced  by  the 
single  marble  arch  of  the  far-famed  Rialto  ;  an  arch  long 
the  glory  of  Venice  and  the  envy  and  the  admiration  of 
strangers,  till  a  modern  utilitarian  tourist  discovered  that 
its  chief  supposed  excellences  were  in  truth  defects ;  that 
it  was  erroneous  to  praise  its  length  of  span  and  lowness 
of  spring;  and  that  it  would  be  far  better  to  substitute  a 
cast-iron  bridge  from  the  furnaces  of  Rotherham,  which 
might  be  free  from  these  egregious  faults  !*  Besides  these 
great  works,  a  new  and  more  commodious  site  was  chosen 
for  the  dungeons  hitherto  constructed  in  the  vaults  under 


Feast  of  the  Annunciation  in  the  following  year,  the  birthday  of  Venice, 
which  coincidence  is  marked  by  an  inscription  on  the  pavement,  Unde 
Origo  inde  Salu/!. 

*  Macgili's  Travels,  London  and  Edinburgh,  1508.  The  architect  of 
the  Rialto  was  Antonio  da  Ponte  ;  it  was  begun  in  1587,  and  completed  in 
1591 ;  the  chord  of  the  arch  is  ninety-six  feet  ten  inches,  the  height  ot 
the  centre  ttom  the  water  twenty -one  feet ;  the  extreme  breadth  Bixty-siz 
leec. 


I 


I"f 


238 


BIANCA   CAPPELLO. 


,h 


known  Pme  &  sVXi  Trl^"'  P''gha,'-^nd  the  better 

|ninute  of  the  senS\ru  d^the^itt*:.''/'-  "^-"^ 
tendencetoprovideabniMlnrrlv  T/  ^"^^  ^^  superin- 
and  the  prisL  whi^h  a  otf/ it  fuT^^e^l'.r^^ 
are  styled  by  Coryat  the  "fairest  "'.nT,^"'"  "'^"^ 
"strongest,"'whieh  either  travel  'lndvisi^L^°T''  ""' 
inspected  the  Venetian  prison,  hi  77s  Ii  .!*  Howard 
tween  three  and  fourhun'd  S  per  oS  ."  «"  '"'  ^''""''  ^''^ 
for  life,  and  in  loathsome  and^dXeUs  "a'd'aT  th'o'"''"^ 
darkness  assured  him  that  thpv  tu^.w     k  '  ^"^^^  ^^ 

gallevs  for  lite.  '^  "^^"^^  ^^^«  preferred  the 

i^r^'-bh^^^^^^^^^^^^^ 

prized  more  than  all  of  thosp  jhli  .  /,*^°""^*^<'ns» 
Bianca,  and  in  his  hope  a  re.?lv  nU  ?."'^  ^^  ^''  ^^^S^tel 
and  most  powerful  house  i^Vetce^  "^^^  '^'  '^^'^^^^ 

propinquity  (that  most  fert  e  sprinJ  oMoveT  h'T"'^  ^^^ 
directed  the  maiden's  own  wishel  tow^f^  ^l  '^^'^^'^ 
youth  ofhandsome  person  and ^.n  T  '"^^  ^  Florentine 
no  higher  station  tha'n^t  of  c!  reTundeT.I,^  "'^  '"^'^ 
of  an  uncle,  in  the  wealthy  bank  of  thp  4  .  Protection 
from  the  Pallazzo  Cappe^H  pLro  R  ^'''^'''  "^*  ^^' 
favoured  suitor,  in  order  To  securf  hi  .^"^"^/fntura,  the 
concealed  the  pover";  and  obscuritv'orh'^  i^  T^^^"' 
persuaded  her  that  he^as  a  neXV/a^arttf  ^f  Th^ 

^^^^nSi'l^:,;:—^  the  nob,es 

s^t-soon  the  same  account  the  bellwhich  simmn^rH  ^^'^  «'  »»>«' 

La  Trottiera.—Daru,  vol.  vi  ^  summoned  them  was  called 

t  Doglioni,  Hist.  Ventt.  lib.  xv 

+  ^"'■yst'  Crvdities,  p.  217 

particularly  ihat  of  the  baker^'bov  wf  ^"f^^T^'^  f"""  ^anv  additions 
fair  o,:e  during  her  assi/nation  T^  '°  ''°^^''  ^^«  ^'"^^  'eft  8pen  by  "h  ' 
Wholly  relied'(wnf?'S  W^'d" '¥"  r'"'"  "^^  ha^eatt 

the  time  was  proclaimed  in  V^ice  ^/ySS^''''''"^  ''^"^  ^^^'"^^  U 


HER  RESIDENCE  IN  FLORENCE. 


239 


rich  bankers  by  whom  he  was  in  truth  but  subordinately 
employed.  False  keys  and  the  aid  of  a  governess, — whom 
the  novelist  Malespini  somewhat  inappropriately  describes 
as  una  fedele  matroria, — procured  the  enamoured  Bianca 
nightly  egress  from  her  father's  palace  to  stolen  interviews 
with  her  lover.  Not  many  months  elapsed  before  conceal- 
ment became  no  longer  possible  ;  and  under  the  dread 
of  separation  upon  discovery,  and  yet  more  of  a  bloody 
Italian  vengeance  for  her  dishonour,  Bianca  resolved  to 
abandon  home  and  country,  and  to  commit  herself  entirely 
to  the  adventurer  whom  she  now  called  husband.  Having 
collected  her  jewels  and  a  well-replenished  purse,*  she 
threw  herself  accordingly  into  a  gondola  on  the  night 
of  the  1st  of  December,  1563,  gained  Terra  Firma^  and 
hastily  proceeded  to  Florence  under  the  guardijuiship 
of  Pietro. 

The  Tuscan  dutchy  at  that  time  was  still  nominally  held 
by  Cosmo  dei  Medici ;  but  the  government  of  his  capital 
and  all  virtual  authority  had  been  devolved  b}'  him  on  his 
son  Francesco,  to  whose  protection  the  fugitives  immedi- 
ately resorted.  But  it  was  in  vain  that  the  young  prince 
solicited  reconciliation  for  Bianca  with  her  indignant  family. 
Her  father,  disappointed  in  his  projects  of  ambition,  de- 
ceived and  abandoned  by  that  daughter  upon  whom  had 
been  centred  his  fondest  affections,  and  brooding  upon  the 
misalliance  which  had  sullied,  as  he  declared,  the  stream 
of  his  hitherto  uncontaminatcd  blood,  renounced  all  further 
connexion  with  her,  and  avowed  purposes  of  unremitting 
revenge  ;  in  which  he  was  zealously  encouraged  by  his 
brother-in-law  Grimani,  patriarch  of  Aquileia.  Their  first 
step  was  to  procure  the  imprisonment  of  Pietro's  unhappy 
uncle,  who  vainly  protested  his  total  unacquaintance  with 
the  amour,  and  died  miserably  after  a  short  confinement. 
Then  representing  to  the  Ten  that  the  disgrace  of  the 
Cappelli  involved  in  it  an  unpardonable  affront  to  the  whole 
body  of  Venetian  nobility,  they  obtained  an  edict  inflicting 
perpetual  banishment  on  Pietro,  and  offering  a  price  of  two 
thousand  ducats  for  his  head. 

*  Thte  fact  destroys  the  ingraftments  of  Malespini  as  to  her  extreme 
poverty  when  at  Florence,  and  relieves  her  also  from  Tenhove's  impu- 
tation. It  is  quite  needless  to  exaegeraie  the  infamy  of  Bianca  Cap- 
pello.  See  Mem.  of  the  House  of  Medici^  translated  by  Sir  R.  Clayton, 
vol.  ii.  ch.  13. 


-^ 


240 


V 


INTLUENCE  OP  BIANCA  OVER 


Meantime,   a  frequent    and    familiar  intercourse   with 
Kianca,  her  gnef,  her  fears,  her  defencelessness,  her  sin- 
gular   beauty,    and   her   equally   distinguished   powers  of 
mnid,  struck  the  imagination  and  engrossed  the  affections 
of  Francesco  dei  Medici.     He  loved,  and  did  not  plead  in 
vain ;  yet  pending  a  negotiation  of  marriage  with  Joanna 
of  Austria  to  whom  he  was  already  plighted,  the  indulgence 
A.  D.     °^r        Passion  was  concealed  from  the  public  eye. 
1566.    ^^  sooner,  however,  were  his  nuptials  completed, 
than,  regardless  of  his  bride,  he  appointed  Pietro  his 
master  of  the  robes,  established  Bianca  magnificently  in  a 
palace   adjoining   his   own,    and    entertained    her    as   his 
avowed    mistress.      Whether  the   husband,  who    at  first 
contentedly  bartered  his  honour  for  patronage,  and  formed 
what  the  Itahans,  accustomed  to  such  shameless  arrange- 
ments,  name  un  tnangolo  equUatero,  afterward  manifested 
a  ^troublesome  jealousy,  and  was  despatched  by  Frances- 
co s  orders,  or  whether  the  unextinguished  hatred  of  his 
Venetian  enemies  at  length  gratified  itself  by  his  death,* 
does  not  appear  certain  :  but,  after  seven  years'  abode  in 
Jlorence,  he  was  found  murdered   in  the  streets.     Every 
hour  now  mcreased  the  prince's  weakness  and  Bianca's 
influence  ;  and,  not  satisfied  with  reliance  upon  her  rare 
natural  endowments,  upon  her  unrivalled  personal  charms, 
her  wit  and  elegance,  her  vivacity  and   playfulness,   and 
those  thousand  little  pleasing  caprices  which  moulded  Fran- 
cesco to  her  will,t— all  which  her  bitterest  censurers  are 
compelled  to  accord  to  her— she  is  said  to  have  called  to 
her  aid  the  superstitions  of  her  time  ;  to  have  received  into 
her  full  confidence  a  Jewish  hag  pretending  to  more  than 
human  powers;  to  have  employed  filters  and  incantations; 
and  to  have  gathered  round  her  a  rabble  of  charlatans  and 
astrologers,  all  employed  in  the  one  grand  object  of  height- 
ening and  continuing  her  lover's  attachment.     Far  blacker 
accusations  also  rest  upon  her  memory.     The  prince  bein^ 
eagerly  desirous  of  male  issue,  which  his  marriage-bed  had 
as  yet  failed  to  produce,  Bianca  is  said  to  have  feigned 

*  Malespini  assigns  a  third  cause,  an  intrigue,  of  which  he  onenlv 
STher  family  '  '^'"''"'•"'  '^''  ''  '"'''''  ^h"««  d'«^onour  was  avTnged 


FRANCISCO  DEI  MEDICI. 


241 


appearances  which  promised  gratification  to  his  most 
ardent  wish.  As  the  full  season  at  which  those  hopes 
were  to  be  realized  approached,  she  lodged  in  diflTerent 
quarters  of  the  city  three  women  at  the  eve  of  confinement ; 
and  adroitly  presented  to  Francesco  a  supposititious  boy, 
the  produce  of  one  of  those  mothers.  The  wretched  tools 
of  her  iniquitous  fraud,  if  permitted  to  live,  might  have 
compromised  her  security,  they  were  therefore  speedily 
removed  by  poison  ;  and  more  than  a  year  afterward,  a 
Bolognese  lady  who  had  been  employed  in  this  agency, 
and  of  whose  fidelity  some  doubts  were  entertained,  received 
permission  to  visit  her  native  city,  and  was  assassinated 
among  the  mountains  on  her  route.  The  dying  confessions 
of  this  last  victim,  who  survived  a  few  hours  after  having 
been  mortally  wounded,  revealed  these  complicated  atroci- 
ties ;  and  having  been  transmitted  to  Ferdinando,  Cardinal 
dei  Medici,  Francesco's  brother,  they  increased  his  deserved 
and  undissembled  abhorrence  of  the  guilty  woman  who  held 
the  prince  in  willing  thraldom. 

Francesco  was  now  in  possession  of  the  throne,  and  he  was 
soon  also  to  be  freed  from  the  ties  of  marriage.  The 
splendid  reception  afforded  at  his  court  to  a  brother  i  gyg' 
of  his  mistress,  and  the  unlimited  confidence  which 
he  appeared  to  repose  in  him,  not  only  so  far  alienated  his 
subjects  as  to  produce  a  menace  of  revolt,  but  aggravated 
the  sorrows  of  his  neglected  consort  and  closed  them  by 
death  in  premature  child-birth.  The  final  object  of  Bianca's 
ambition  now  seemed  easy  of  attainment.  Many  years 
since,  even  during  the  lifetime  of  her  husband,  and  at  the 
commencement  of  the  duke's  infatuated  passion,  she  had 
led  him  before  an  image  of  the  Virgin  ;  and  had  there 
received  and  given  a  solemn  pledge  that  when  both  were 
released  from  their  existing  bonds  they  would  become 
mutually  united  by  marriage.  Nevertheless  some  remaining 
sense  of  shame,  the  urgent  representations  of  the  cardinal, 
and  the  fear  of  heightening  disaffection  among  his  people, 
awhile  restrained  Francesco  from  thus  completing  his 
distrrace.  For  a  short  time  he  absented  himself  from 
Florence,  and  promised  to  renounce  all  future  connexion 
with  Bianca ;  till  the  artifices  of  a  confessor  whom  she 
held  in  pay  stifled  the  voice  of  conscience  and  of  reason, 
and  led  him  back  insensibly  to  his  former  slavery.     Before 

Vol.  II.— X 


i 


-l..  1^ 


'm 


242     BIANCA  ADOPTED  A  DAUGHTER  OF  VENICE. 

two  months  of  widowhood  had  expired,  he  privately 
,l^g     married  her,  without  revealing  the  secret  even  to 

his  brother ;  nor  was  it  till  during  a  severe  illness, 
when  Ferdinando  remonstrated  upon  the  gross  scandal 
of  the  constant  attendance  of  a  mistress  upon  that  which 
might  prove  his  death-bed,  that  he  avowed  her  to  be  his 
wife,  and  pleaded  the  son,  Don  Antonio,  whom  she  had 
borne  him,  in  extenuation  of  the  folly. 

To  his  people  these  ill-omened  nuptials  were  not  declared 
till  the  year  of  customary  mourning  had  closed  ;*  and  then, 
in  order  that  no  formal  ratification  of  his  union  might  be 
wanting,  the  grand-duke  resolved  to  conform  to  that  usage 
of  Venice  which  prohibited  the  intermarriage  of  a  foreio-ner 
with  any  of  her  noble  families  ;  and  to  demand  Bianca,  not 
as  a  daughter  of  Cappello,  but  of  St.  Mark  himself.  A 
splendid  embassy  was  accordingly  despatched  to  the  signory 
avowing  the  prince's  desire  to  ally  himself  with  Venice  in 
preference  to  any  other  European  state;  and  praying  that 
his  consort  might  be  affiliated  by  the  republic,  in  orde^r  that 
he  also  might  claim  the  privileges  and  discharge  the  duties 
of  an  adopted  son.  The  former  dishonour  of  Bianca  was 
instantly  buried  in  oblivion  both  by  the  public  authorities 
and  by  her  own  family.  The  Ten  forgot  their  denunciations 
of  vengeance ;  her  parents  reacknowledged  their  beloved 
and  long-lost  daughter  with  expressions  of  tenderest  affec- 
tion; and  the  Patriarch  Grimani,  who  had  been  the  most 
active  stimulator  of  her  early  persecution  and  of  the  pro- 
jected assassination  of  her  first  husband,  now  received  the 
Florentine  ambassadors  with  sacerdotal  pomp  on  their  en- 
trance into  the  Palazzo  Cappelli.  In  a  brilliant  assembly 
June  16  ®^  ^^f  sigpory,  the  councils,  and  all  other  public 
1579.  '   functionaries,  and  amid  a  throng  of  delighted  and 

approving  relatives,  Bianca  was  formally  recog- 
nised as  "the  true  and  particular  daughter  of  the  republic, 
on  account  and  in  consideration  of  the  many  eminent  and 
distinguished  qualities  which  rendered  her  worthy  of  every 

*  According  to  Tenhove,  the  notification  was  received  with  scorn  and 
ridicule,  and  the  populace  chanted  ribald  songsaboutlhestreetaof  Flor- 
ence.—(Clayton,  ii.  ch.  xiii.  p.  500,) 

II  gran  duca  di  Toscana 
Ha  sposata  una  putana 
GentUdonna  Veneziana. 


I* 


SUSPICIONS  OF  THE  CARDINAL  DEI  MEDICI.    243 

good  fortune  ;  and  in  order  to  meet  with  corresponding  feel- 
ings the  esteem  vyhich  the  grand-duke  had  manifested  towards 
Venice  by  this  his  most  prudent  resolution."     Salvoes  of 
artillery,  bonfires,  and  illuminations  proclaimed  the  univer- 
sal joy.     The  father  and  brother  of  the  new-born  child  of 
the  state  were  created  cavalierij  and  allowed  precedence  be- 
fore all  others  of  their  class ;  "  the  signory  condescended 
to  visit  the  Florentine  envoys  privately,  and  the  senate  of- 
fered their  congratulations  openly  and  ceremoniously.    Two 
of  the  graves?  nobles,  supported  by  ninety  gentlemen  of 
rank,  each   accompanied  by  a  magnificent  suite,,  were  de- 
puted to  put  Bianca  in  possession  of  her  newly  acquired 
rights,  and  to  assist  at  the  second  nuptials  which  Francesco 
determined  to  celebrate  with  public  solomniiies.     The  pa- 
triarch and  all  the  chief  Cappelli  transferred  themselves  to 
Florence,  as  witnesses  of  this  glory  of  their  house  ;  and  m 
order  to  consummate  its  aggrandizement,  the  consent  of 
the  holy  see  was  obtained  for  Bianca's  coronation,  that  she 
might  be  placed  on  an  equality  with  the  former  adopted 
dauffhters  of  St.  Mark,  the  queens  of  Hungary  and  of  Cy- 

prus." 

No  baser  sacrifice  than  that  which  the  Venetian  govern- 
ment and  the  Cappelli  offered  up  at  the  shrine  of  worldly 
interest  is  presented  to  us  by  history  ;  and  much  as  every 
generous  feeling  despises  that  false  pride  of  conventional 
honour  which  induced  her  family  to  renounce  Bianca  in  her 
former  virtuous  poverty,  far  more  does  it  revolt  from  the 
mean  adulation  with  which  they  were  seen  to  fall  down  and 
worship  her  subsequent  greatness  of  station  and  of  infamy. 
But  mark  the  sequel !  The  cardinal,  although  seemingly 
reconciled,  was  beset  with  distrust,  and  cherished  perpetual 
and  well-founded  suspicions  that  his  presumptive  right  of 
succession  might  be  frustrated  by  the  artifices  of  Bianca. 
If  Don  Antonfo,  indeed,  were  legitimated  and  declared  heir 
to  the  throne,  so  flagrant  a  violation  of  justice  might  be 
remedied  after  the  death  of  his  reputed  father ;  but  what 
if  Bianca,  although  now  manifestly  unfitted  for  maternity, 
were  again,  as  she  more  than  once  seemed  plotting,  to  im- 
pose upon  her  credulous  husband  another  boy,  who,  as  the 
presumed  issue  of  wedlock,  would  be  his  legal  successor  ! 
Prompt  measures  were  demanded,  and  it  is  too  probable 
that  the  most  prompt  were  adopted ;  for  the  Medici  were 


244 


DEATHS  OF  FRANCESCO  AND  BIANCA. 


)i 


familiar  with  crime,  and  their  domestic  annals  were  written 
in  deeply  died  characters  of  blood.  Two  daughters  sacri- 
ficed to  the  jealousy  of  their  husbands,  a  third  poisoned  by 
the  orders  of  her  father,  who,  with  his  own  hand,  put  to 
death  one  son  for  the  assassination  of  another,  are  among 
the  incidents  of  horror  which  mark  the  life  of  the  first 
Grand-duke  Cosmo  ;  and  his  successor  Francesco  was  now 
destined,  as  we  may  reasonably  believe,  to  swell  this  foul 
catalogue  of  unnatural  murders. 

The  cardinal  accepted  an  invitation  to  the  retired  hunt- 
A.  D.     i"g-seat  of  Poggio  a  Caiano,  and  in  the  course  of  a 
1587.    "^^^k's  abode  both  the  grand-duke  and  Bianca  ex- 
pired within  a  few  hours  of  each  other.     The  stu- 
dious care  with  which  the  bodies  were  first  opened  by  the 
court  physicians,  and  the  parade  with  which  they  were  af- 
terward exhibited  to  public  inspection,  tended  only  to  in- 
crease a  natural  suspicion  that  their  deaths  were  the  result 
of  poison.     Whether  Ferdinando  drugged  a  favourite  dish 
for  both,  or  whether  that  drugged  for  him  by  Bianca, — 
and  detected,  as  the  credulity  of  his  age  believed,  by  a 
change  of  colour  in  his  ring,*-^was  first  tasted  inadvert- 
ently by  Francesco,  and  then  finished  in  despair  by  herself, 
was  not  ascertained  at  the  time  ;  and  it  must  therefore  con- 
tinue doubtful  whether  this  great  crime  is  to  be  attributed  to 
the  ambition  of  a  prince  eager  to  reign,  or  to  the  hatred  of 
an  infuriated  woman.     The   funeral  honours  due  to  the 
rank  of  the  late  grand-duchess  were  denied  by  Ferdinando  on 
his  accession  ;  and  her  remains,  instead  of  being  committed 
to  the  splendid  cemetery  of  the  Medici,  were  interred  pri- 
vately, and  without  a  memorial,  in  the  crypt  of  San  Loren- 
zo ;  her  arms  and  emblems,  wherever  blazoned,  were  care- 
fully defaced  ;  and,  in  order  more  eflTectually  to  transmit  her 
name  with  dishonour  to  posterity,  her  title  was  erased  from 

*  ™^^s^OT  may  appear  to  derive  some  countenance  from  a  state- 
ment of  Sir  Henry  Wotton.  In  a  Character  of  Ferdinando  dei  Medici, 
Ue  says,  'This  duke,  while  I  was  a  private  traveller  at  Florence,  and 
went  sometime  by  chance  (sure  I  am  without  any  design)  to  his  court, 
was  pleased  out  of  some  gracious  conceit  which  he  look  of  mv  fidelity 
(tor  nothmg  else  could  move  it),  to  employ  me  into  Scotland  with  a  ca»- 
Ket  of  antidotes  or  preservatives,  wherein  he  did  excel  all  the  nrinees 
or  the  world.''  -Reliq.  Wotton..  p.  246.  That  casket  laid  the  foundation 
01  wotton  8  fortunes  ;  it  was  sent  to  protect  James  I,,  before  his  acces- 
fi,°.1  1  '^fT"  °^  England,  agamat  a  poi»onmg  plot  which  had  coma 
to  the  knowledge  of  the  grand-duke. 


^i 


A.  D. 

1589. 


ALLUNCE  WITH  HENRY  IV.  OF  FRANCE.      245 

all  public  documents,  beginning  with  the  registry  of  Don 
Antonio's  birth,  and  in  its  room  was  substituted  la  pessima 
Bianca. 

On  the  accession  of  Henry  IV.  to  the  crown  of  France, 
Venice  was  among  the  first  powers  which  recognised 
his  title ;  and  the  great  benefit  which  the  king  de- 
rived from  that  early  acknowledgment  by  a  state  re- 
nowned for  political  sagacity  was  repaid  by  him  with  lasting 
friendship.  He  knighted  the  ambassadors  of  the  republic, 
and  presented  the  treasury  of  St.  Mark's  with  the  sword 
which  he  had  worn  at  the  battle  of  Yvry.  The  signory,  in 
return,  enrolled  the  royal  name  in  the  Golden  Book,  by  an 
unprecedented  ballot  of  one  thousand  six  hundred  and  thirty 
assentient  votes ;  and  with  yet  more  substantial  gratitude 
they  instructed  their  ambassadors  to  commit  to  the  flames, 
in  the  king's  presence,  certain  obligations  for  considerable 
sums  which  he  had  borrowed  during  his  necessities.  Henry, 
who  was  quick  of  speech,  and  loved  pleasantry  to  his  heart, 
first  thanked  the  envoy  with  becoming  courtesy,  and  then 
gayly  assured  him  that  he  had  never  before  warmed  himself 
at  so  agreeable  a  fire.*  As  the  Spanish  monarchy  contin- 
ued to  increase  its  dominions  in  northern  Italy,  and  betrayed 
an  ill-disguised  hostility  equally  against  France  and  Venice, 
the  strict  alliance  thus  fortunately  established  became  im- 
portant to  the  interests  of  both  countries. 

Henry,  indeed,  in  more  than  one  way,  sought  to  replenish 
his  cotfers  by  coining  the  friendship  of  Venice  into  ready 
ducats.  Al)0ut  the  year  1590,  we  are  told,  there  appeared 
a  most  eminent  alchymist,  a  Cypriote,  named  Marco  Braga- 
dino,  who  obtained  so  great  renown  for  the  transmutation 
of  mercury  into  the  very  finest  gold,  that  he  was  sought  for 
by  all  the  leading  potentates  of  Europe.  He  preferred  Ven- 
ice to  his  other  suitors,  and  he  w.is  received  with  much 
complacency  and  distinction  by  the  signory  ;  was  housed  in 
a  noble  mansion,  and  visited  by  the  most  wealthy  and  hon- 
ourable persons,  not  only  of  that  city,  but  of  all  Italy,  and 
even  by  princes  themselves.  His  mode  of  living  was  at- 
tended with  great  and  almost  regal  magnificence ;  he  as- 
sumed the  title  of  Illustrissimo^  and  he  was  universally  es- 

*  These  respective  interchanges  of  kindness  are  noticed  in  the  Lettrea 
d'Ossat,  iii.  137,  L.  149,  iv.  463,  L.  282 ;  by  Maurocenus,  Hist.  Ven.  lib. 
XV.  aijin. ;  and  by  Bayle,  ad  v.  Hadrien.  Rem.  H. 

X2 


] 


■'.j'tWmii;       Jfjj--  rt.,..   HfJ 


(! 


246 


MARCO  BRAOADINO. 


I! 


teemed  of  rare  and  singular  merit,  and  a  genuine  possessor 
of  the  veritable  elixir.     An  artist  of  pretensions  thus  lofty 
readily  gained  the  ear  of  a  needy  sovereign,  and  Henry  ac- 
cordingly addressed  an  invitation  to  him  through  his  ambas- 
sador.    The  despatch  to  the  envoy  within  which  the  king 
enclosed  this  gracious  summons,  exhibits  an  amusing  strug- 
gle between  the  very  natural  desire  that  Bragadino's  reported 
powers  might  be  true,  and  the  conviction  produced  by  good 
sense  that  they  must  be  altogether  false.     "  He  has  been 
represented  to  me,"  are  Henry's  words,  "  as  possessor  of 
that  secret,  in  pursuit  of  which  so  many  adepts  have  ex- 
hausted their  lives  and  their  substance ;  and  I  am  assured 
that  he  is  also  full  of  good- will  to  my  service.     There  can 
be  no  harm,  therefore,  in  disposing  him  to  come  to  me. 
Not  that  I  believe  all  I  have  been  told  of  his  science ;  but  that 
being  thoroughly  determined,  as  I  am,  not  to  be  cheated,  I 
should  be  very  sorry  if  there  were  any  impediment  against  his 
coming^*     The  ambassador,  with  more  caution  than  his 
master,  kept  back  this  letter  intrusted  to  him,  and  the  event 
proved  that  his  suspicions  of  roguery  were  well  founded ; 
for,  after  a  time,  continues  Doglioni,  from  whom  we  borrovv 
the  anecdote,!  it  so  happened  that  Bragadino,  being  de- 
serted by  his  acquaintance,  and  recognised  in  his  true  char- 
g:ter,  after  a  short  retirement  to  Padua,  betook  himself  to 
Bavana;  thinking  that,  like  many  others  who  had  gone 
there  before  him,  he  might  easily  beguile  the  reigning  duke. 
God,  however,  who  is  not  willing  that  frauds  should  remain 
always  undiscovered,  revealed  his  imposture;    and  either 
through  fear  of  torture,  or  from  remorse  of  conscience, 
thmkmg  it  time  to  give  over  his  sins,  the  hypocrite  confessed 
that  what  he  appeared  to  do  was  not  really  done,  but  was  a 
mere  deception  of  sight— una  pura  fascinatione,—on  which 
account  the  duke  ordered  him  to  be  beheaded,  and  two  doas, 
who  always  accompanied  him  in  golden  collars,  to  be  shot 
at  the  same  time  \t  it  being  the  opinion  of  some  that  those 
dogs  were  no  other  than  fiends,  of  whose  service  he  had 
obtamed  mastery,  and  whom  he  employed  as  familiars  to 

T^-  J^'S  Letter  from  Henry  IV.  to  M.  de  Maisse,  7  March,  1590,  cite  J  by 
Darn,  lib.  xxviu.  v.  iv.  p.  215.  ' 

t  Lib.  xviii.  p.  977, 

X  Mr.  Ropers,  who  has  made  very  spirited  use  of  Bragadino  (Itcdv 
Sit.  Mark  s  Place),  deprives  him  of  his  shadow.    Such,  no  doubt,  is  oiw 


« 


ACCESSION  OF  POPE  PAUL  V. 


247 


cheat  the  bystanders'  eyes  while  he  exhibited  his  projection 
and  sleight  of  hand. 

The  aid  of  France  was  a  tower  of  strength  to  Venice  in 
the  memorable  contest  which  she  sustained  with  the  papacy 
at  the  commencement  of  the  seventeenth  century.     In  1605 
the  triple  crown  devolved  upon  a  pope,  who,  in  his  estimate 
of  the  illimitable  extent  of  pontifical  authority,  was  scarcely 
surpassed  by  Hildebrand  himself;  and  the  accession  of  Ca- 
millo  Borghese,  as  Paul  V.,  spread  the  flames  of  ecclesias- 
tical controversy  through  every  court  which  acknowledged 
the  sway  of  Rome.     The  barriers  which  Venice  through- 
out her  history  had  maintained  with  so  unbending  a  firm- 
ness against  the  despotism  of  the  Vatican,  could  not  but 
be  grievously  offensive  to  a  priest  affecting  unbounded  and 
universal  dominion ;  and  long  before  the  conclave  had  elected 
Borghese  to  the  tiara,  his  jealousy  of  resistance  had  mani- 
fested itself  by  a  declaration  to  Leonardo  Donato,  the  Ve- 
netian ambassador,  that  if  he  were  pope,  and  the  republic 
gave  him  cause  of  discontent,  he  would  lose  no  time  in  ne- 
gotiation, but  would  launch  an  interdict  at  once.     "  And  if  I 
were  doge,"  was  the  intrepid  and  uncompromising  answer, 
**I  would  treat  your  anathemas  with  contempt."     Rarely, 
indeed,  have  the  course  of  events  and  the  power  of  circum- 
stances led  two  parties  to  a  more  precise  fulfihnent  on  both 
sides  of  hypothetical  intentions. 

Numerous  petty  causes  conspired  at  this  time  to  increase 
the  want  of  complacency  with  which  the  holy  see  was  ever 
disposed  to  regard  Venice.  Two  recent  edicts,  both  founded 
on  a  wise  domestic  policy,  appeared  to  extinguish  every 
hope  of  increasing  the  papal  influence  in  this  most  refrac- 
tory state  ;  and  each,  therefore,  was  bitterly  resented.  By 
one,  it  was  forbidden  that  any  new  church  should  be  erected 
in  the  city  without  express  permission  from  government ; 
and  the  existence  of  two  hundred  religious  houses,  occupy- 
ing half  the  extent  of  a  capital  against  the  enlargement  of 
whose  circuit  nature  had  planted  insurmountable  obstacles, 
might  be  justly  pleaded  in  defence  of  this  self-preserving 
ordinance.  By  another  decree,  resting  on  the  principle  of 
our  own  statute  of  mortmain,  any  fresh  endowment  of 

of  the  legitimate  privileges  of  a  wizard,  especially  if  he  has  studied  at 
Padua  (as  we  know  from  Michael  Scott),  but  in  the  present  instance  it 
is  not  so  written  down  by  the  original  authority. 


248 


PAUL  INTERDICTS  VENICE. 


ecclesiastical  establishments  was  prohibited  ;  a  fiscal  regn- 
lation  frequently  before  promulgated  in  Venice,  not  unusual 
in  other  countries,  sanctioned  by  the  similar  act  of  a  former 
pope,  Clement  VII.,  in  order  to  check  the  lavish  and  ex- 
travagant donations  to  the  Casa  of  Loretto,  and  essential 
to  the  very  existence  of  revenue  in  any  government  under 
which  ecclesiastics  claim  exemption  from  taxes. 

While  Paul  regarded  these  enactments  with  an  evil  eye 
his  indignation  was  swelled  beyond  control  by  an  exercise 
of  civil  authority  which  he  aflected  to  consider  a  direct  in- 
road   upon  the  power  of  the  keys.     Sarraceno,  a  canon  of 
Vicenza,  not  yet  admitted  to  full  orders,  being  unsuccessful 
m  a  base  attempt  upon  the  virtue  of  a  lady  of  honour,  his 
near  relative,  avenged  himself  by  a  flagrant  and  unmanly 
outrage  on  decency.     The  fact  was  proved  beyond  doubt 
before  the  Ten  ;  and  evidence  being  adduced  that  the  same 
offender  had  also  broken  the  seals  which  closed  the  chancery 
of  his  diocess,  during  the  vacancy  of  the  see,  the  council 
issued  an  order  for  his  imprisonment.     A  far  more  detest- 
able malefactor  was  found  in  the  person  of  Bernardo  Valde- 
marino.  Abbot  of  Nervesa.     Scarcely  an  atrocity  which  can 
pollute  manhood  had  escaped   commission   bv  that   most 
wretched  criminal.     Extortion,  cruelty,  and  general  disso- 
luteness of  prmciples  and  habits  seemed  but  foibles  hi  one 
who  Avas  accused   of  sorcery,   and  convicted  of  frequent 
poisonings  among  the  brotherhood  of  his  cloister,  of  parri- 
cide, of  incest,  and  of  the  subsequent  murder  of  the  unhappy 
sister  whom  he  had  violated.     It  was  to  reclaim  these  two 
prisoners  from  the  hands  of  justice  that  the  pope,  in  the  first 
instance,  angrily  and  haughtily  appealed  to  the  Venetian 
ambassador ;  and  when  he  found  the  senate  inflexible,  that 
he  issued  br.efs  denouncing  the  uttermost  spiritual  penalties 
if  they  persisted  in  contumacy.  ^ 

Before  the  nuncio  could  present  those  briefs,  the  death 
of  Grimam*  vacated  the  ducal  throne;  yet  in  spite  of  a 
declaration  from  Paul  that  any  election  under  his  present 
displeasure  would  be  void,  the  council  proceeded  to  ballot,  and 

pri*n^e'bvMhn?H«  ^^'^^*"«'  '^^  papal  legate  accelerated  tlie  death  of  this 
«  Griman,  «  P        "^  "^^"^^^^s  of  spiritual  vengeance  over  his  sick  couch 


J. 


FIRMNESS  OF  THE  SENATE. 


249 


their  choice  fell  upon  Leoxardo  Donato,  "  a  wise 
and  resolute  man,"  as  he  is  characterized  by  Sir    ■,nf^(<' 
Henry  Wotton,  and  as  he  soon  evinced  himself  to 
be  ;  and  the  very  noble  who  some  years  before  had  avowed 
his  scorn  of  papal  intemperance.     An  omen,  we  are  told, 
was  drawn  from  an  accident  which  occurred  while  the  work- 
men of  the  arsenal  were  chairing  their  new  sovereign  round 
the  piazza ;  some  idle  boys,  after  pelting  their  playmates 
with  snowballs,  began  to  throw  stones,  with  one  of  which 
a  flag-staff  in  front  of  the  palace,  bearing  the  standard  of 
the   republic,  was  shattered   and   broken.      How,  it  was 
whispered,  can  a  reign  thus  commencing  be  otherwise  than 
stormy]*      The  first   act  of  Donato   referred   the   papsd 
demands  to  a  synod  of  doctors  in  the  University  of  Padua  ; 
assisted  by  Fra  Paolo  Sarpi,  one  of  the  greatest  names  of 
which  Venice  ever  boasted,  the  most  judicious  theologian, 
and  the  most  profound  canonist  and  civilian  of  his  own,  or 
perhaps  of  any  other  limes.     The  unanimous  decision  of 
one  hundred  and  fifty  voices  in  that  assembly  approved  a 
respectful  opposition  to  the  holy  see  ;  and  Paul,  j.     ,  « 
summoning  a  conclave  on  the  receipt  of  that  intelli-     ^ 
gence,  prepared,  ratified,  and  promulgated  a  bull  of  inter- 
dict.    How  fearfully  such  an  instrument  operated  on  men's 
minds  in  the  early  part  of  the  fourteenth  century,  and  how 
grievous  were  the  pains  it  inflicted,  we  have  already  suffi- 
ciently explained  when  relating  the  similar  rupture  between 
Venice  and  Clement  V.  in   1309.t     The  lapse  of  three 
hundred  years,  however,  as  the  sequel  will  evince,  had  de- 
prived that  once  fatal  weapon  of  its  original  force  and 
keenness,  and  had  so  far  weakened  the  arm  by  which  it  wa« 
hurled,  that  its  point  dropped  feebly,  and  without  power  to 
wound,  upon  the  mark  at  which  it  was  aimed. 

The  senate  met  this  act  of  injudicious  violence  calmly  but 
energetically  ;  they  recalled  their  ambassador  from  Rome  ; 
they  ordered  their  clergy  to  surrender,  with  the  seals  un- 
broken, whatever  despatches  might  be  forwarded  to  them 
from  the  Vatican  ;  they  proclaimed  that  it  was  the  duty  of 
all  good  citizens  to  deliver  up  such  copies  of  the  bull  as 
might  fall  into  their  hands  ;  and  they  issued  a  protest  declar- 

*  Maurocenus,  lib.  xvii,  p.  331.  The  English  reader  will  remember 
that  durmg  the  night  after  Charles  I.  erected  his  standard  at  Nottingham, 
it  wa.s  blovi^n  down  by  a  hurricane.  f  Vol.  i,  p.  167. 


•^vnttr  crn-KT    t\V    TUP     TPfiTTTTS- 


251 


250 


CONDUCT  OF  THE  ECCLESIASTICS. 


1 


ing  the  interdict  to  be  null  and  void,  and  forbidding  their 
ecclesiastics  to  obey  it.     The  nuncio,  before  quitting  the 
city,  had  the  mortification  of  reading  this  protest  affixed  to 
the  gates  of  his  own  palace ;  and  he  departed  with  a  fear- 
ful menace  ringing  in  his  ears  from  the  lips  of  the  doge, 
that  the  republic  might  perhaps  follow  the  example  recently 
offered  by  several  other  states,  and  withdraw  herself  alto- 
gether from  connexion  with  the  holy  see.     The  conduct  of 
the  representatives  of  some  of  the  chief  foreign  powers  en- 
couraged the  resolution  of  the  senate  ;  in  Rome,  the  French 
and  Tuscan  ambassadors  on  the  issue  of  the  bull  paid  a 
marked  visit  of  ceremony  to  their  Venetian  brother ;  and 
when  the  doge  communicated  with  Sir  Henry  Wotcon,  the 
English    resident    at    Venice,  that  good    and   wise   min- 
ister replied,  that   "  he  could  not  understand  this  Romish 
theology,  which  was  contrary  to  all  justice  and  honour." 
James  I.  indeed,  who  loved  nothing  better  than  an  opportu- 
nity of  displaying  his  skill  in  controversial  divinity  and  ec- 
clesiastical law,  manifested  the  warmest  interest  in  behalf 
of -the  republic  ;  expressing  a  strong  desire  for  a  general 
council,  through  which  he  thought  God  might  produce  hap- 
pmess  out  of  the  present  turmoil ;  and  adding  that  he  had 
proposed  such  an  assenjbly  to  Clement  V.,  when  that  pope 
congratulated  him  on  his  accession  ;  but  that  the  suggestion, 
to  his  no  small  astonishment,  had  been  rejected  ;*  jfn  issue 
which  may  be   less  surprising  to  readers  of  the  present 
day  than  it  appears  to  have  been  to  the  scholastic  and  dis- 
putatious monarch. 

The  clergy,  for  the  most  part,  promised  ready  obedience 
to  the  magistrates.  One  prelate,  the  Grand  Vicar  of  Padua, 
more  sturdy  than  his  brethren,  replied  that  he  would  act  as 
the  Holy  Spirit  should  prompt  him ;  and  he  was  assured, 
with  greater  wit  than  reverence,  that  the  Holy  Spirit  had 
already  prompted  the  Ten  to  hang  up  the  refractory.  The 
Jesuits,  desirous  to  keep  well  with  both  parties,  resorted  to 
their  usual  casuistry,  and  intrenched  themselves  behind  a 
subtle  distinction.  «  We  have  prom.ised,"  they  said,  «  to 
celebrate  divme  services,  and  we  will  observe  our  promise  ; 
but  as  for  mass,  that  is  a  different  matter,  which  our  con- 
Bcience  and  our  vowed  obedience  to  the  pope  will  by  no 


EXPULSION  OF  THE  JESUITS. 


251 


means  allow  us  to  administer  against  the  prohibition  of  his 
holiness."     Such  half  measures  little  accorded  with  the 
vifforous  determination  of  the  senate,  and  in  the  very  same 
hour  they  ordered  the  recusants  to  quit  the  city  and  territo- 
ries of  the  republic.     Willing  to  possess  the  consolation  of 
companionship  in  exile,  the  Jesuits  forthwith  sent  deputies 
to  the  Capucins  ;  representing  that  the  whole  world  had 
fixed  its  eyes  on  the  order  of  St.  Francis,  and  that  their 
decision  would  establish  a  general   rule    of  conduct   for 
others.     The  simplicity  of  the  good  fathers  was  not  proof 
acrainst  words  so  honeyed  ;  and  proud  of  having  the  eyes 
of  the  whole  world  fixed   upon   them,  they  closed  their 
churches,  and  were  consequently  included  in  the  sentence 
of  banishment  and  confiscation.    The  latter  penalty  afforded 
no  small  gain,  perhaps  no  small  allurement,  to  the  signory  ; 
for  a  revenue  of  thirty  thousand  ducats  accrued  to  the  public 
coffers  from  the  property  of  the  Jesuits  only,  even  within 
the  boundaries  of  the  city.     Not  without  a  hope  of  excitmg 
popular  feeling  in  their  behalf,  each  of  the  disciples  of  Igna- 
tius, as  the  general  body  marched   for  embarkation,  sus- 
pended a  holy  wafer  round  his  neck,  m  token  that  Christ 
was  departing  together  with  him  ;  and  on  arrival  at  the 
quay,  each  knelt  before  the  vicar  of  the  patriarch,  and  ira- 
plored  his  blessing.     This  false  humility  was  estimated  at 
its  due  value  ;  the  dislike  with  which  the  citizens  m  general 
recrarded  these  wilv  meddlers  had  rendered  an  escort  neces- 
sary for  their  protection  ;  and  in  spite  of  these  guards,  as 
the  fathers  stepped  on  board  the  galleys  prepared  for  their 
transportation,  their  farewell  was  delivered  m  portentous 
shoais  of  ''  Ail  date  in  mar  hor  a  r*  ,        ^    .-        i 

It  would  be  tedious  to  follow  the  remainder  of  this  cele- 
brated quarrel  through  its  several  stages.  The  pope  threat- 
ened to  cite  the  doge  before  the  Inquisition,  which  should 
condemn  him  as  a  heretic,  and  he  published  a  jubilee  in 
order  that  he  might  expressly  exclude  Venice  from  its  bene- 
fits.!    The  Jesuits   continued  to  maintain  secret  corres- 

*  The  popular  incri-'Pation  against  the  Jesuits  was  much  increased 
when  a  nSerof  c-r.u-.bles  were  said  to  have  been  found  among  he  r 
effects  after  their  departure;  an  infallible  proof,  as  was  a^rmed, of  thejr 
Section  to  the  forbidden  mysteries  of  alchyn.y  The.r  ad-^^^f «  P^f  ^^^^^ 
that  the  supposed  crucibles  were,  in  fact,  earthen  moulds  which  the  fa- 
thers employed  to  keep  their  cowls  in  shape.— Laugier,  vol.  x.  p.  iVl- 

t  Mauroceous,  lib.  xvii.  p.  351. 


a-*''  jgaanrf^-ij  ■■. . 


252 


BOTH  PARTIES  ARM. 


il 


pondence  with  the  dogado ;  and  by  their  mischievous  influ- 
ence, chiefly  over  women,  in  many  instances  they  kindled 
iamily  dissensions,  and  poisoned  domestic  happiness,  by 
arraying  members  of  the  same  house  against  each  other,  for 
the  love,  as  they  averred,  of  God.     Numerous  controver- 
sialists entered  the  lists  on  either  side  ;  and  «  in  Venice  " 
says  Izaak  Walton,  in  his  admirable  Life  of  Sir  Henry  Wot. 
ton,''  every  man  that  had  a  pleasant  and  scoffina  wit  miffht 
safely  vent  it  against  the  pope,  either  by  free  speaking  or  bv 
libels  in  prmt,  and  both  became  very  pleasant  to  the  peo- 
pie.       But  of  the  many  writings  which  issued  on  this  occa- 
sion from  pens  of  great  theological  distinction  in  their  own 
times,  and  not  yet  forgotten  by  posterity,— from  Bellar- 
mine,  Lolonna,  and  Baronius,  among  others,  on  the  papal 
side  ;  from  Fra  Paolo,  Fulgentius,  and,  as  Morosini  informs 
us,  from  some  poets  also,*  on  that  of  Venice,— it  may  be 
doubted  whether  more  than  the  titles  are  now  explored  even 
by  the  most  ardent  curiosity.     The  fame  gathered  by  an 
author  -in  his  generation"  rarely  nflbrds  a  certain  promise 
that  which  is  to  be  the  future  harvest  of  "  all  time."t 
That  obedience  which  spiritual  weapons  failed  to  win 
It  was  now  thought  might  be  obtained  by  a  show  of  secular 
war;    and  the  pope,  encouraged  by  assurances  of  most 
powerful  support  from   Spain,  armed   such  forces  as  his 
scanty  means  permitted,  and  withdrew  the  treasures  of 
the  Casa  Santa  of  Loretto  to  a  place  of  securer  deposite. 
Ihese  demonstrations  were  met  by  Venice  with  far  more 
than  corresponding  vigour.     In  order  to  animate  the  popu- 
lace, the  doge,  upon  appointing  an  admiral  of  the  fleet,  pro- 
ceeded to  the  arsenal;  from  which  establishment  soldiers 
Imed  the  way  on  either  side  to  the  mint.     One  million  five 
hundred  thousand  ducats,  brought  from  the  treasury,  were 
spread  upon  a  table  before  the  prince  ;  round  that  table  and 
the  arcades  of  the  portico  was  stretched  a  chain  of  solid 

♦  Lib.  xvii.  p.  347. 

Jatv^'ial'^ in'^i'  now  lying  before  us  containing  fourteen  contem- 
porary  tracts  in  defence  of  the  interdict ;  some  of  Them  bv  the  thrp*> 

S  b7^h;'::?/'^""^'^''"P*°"«  °^  P^^'  5  others  bv  mire  XcSje  amho'7 
tlus  volume  has  once  been  highly  treasured  and  diligently  searched'. 


PAUL  EMPLOYS  THE  MEDIATION  OF  FRANCE.    253 

gold  one  hundred  feet  in  length ;  and  from  the  vast  and 
glittering  heap  before  him  Donato  distributed  their  pay  to 
the  mariners.*  No  doubt  could  exist  that  France  would 
take  the  field  in  behalf  of  the  republic,  if  the  Spanish  mon- 
arch ventured  upon  actual  hostility  ;  and  the  King  of  Eng- 
land declared,  through  Wotton,  that  he  would  use  all  his 
endeavours  to  consolidate  a  league  in  favour  of  Venice,  and 
would  assist  her  by  sea  and  land,  with  men  and  money ; 
not  from  enmity  against  the  pope,  but  from  regard  for  the 
general  independence  of  sovereigns.  But  the  court  of 
Madrid  had  little  thoughts  of  forwarding  those  lofty  preten- 
sions of  the  Vatican  which  might  possibly  at  some  future 
time  be  urged  against  herself;  and  the  sole  object  of  Philip 
III.,  in  thus  apparently  espousing  the  cause  of  Rome,  was 
to  secure  to  himself  the  honourable  office  of  mediation  which 
France  also  had  already  claimed.  The  envoys  of  each 
cabinet  pressed  their  services  upon  Paul,  who  now,  convinced 
both  of  his  own  weakness,  and  of  the  hollow  faith  of  his 
ally,  sought  escape  from  the  embroilment  in  which  he  had 
rashly  involved  himself;  and  either  justly  resenting  the 
delusive  promises  with  which  Philip  had  amused  his  cre- 
dulity, or  believing  that  the  negotiation  of  Henry  IV.  would 
be  more  acceptable  to  Venice,  he  in  the  end  intrusted  that 
prince  with  the  conduct  of  the  reconciliation. 

In  the  first  instance,  Paul  vaguely  demanded  just  satis- 
faction ;  but  it  was  by  no  means  easy  to  decide  what  satis- 
faction he  would  consider  to  be  just.  His  claims  were 
then  reduced  to  form  ;  and  they  comprised  the  release  of 
the  two  ecclesiastics,  and  their  delivery  to  the  King  of 
France  ;  submission  to  the  interdict  for  four  or  five  days  ; 
the  appointment  of  a  day  on  which  the  spiritual  censures 
should  be  solemnly  abrogated  ;  the  restoration  of  the  ex- 
pelled monks  ;  and  the  suspension  of  the  laws  affecting 
ecclesiastical  property  and  foundations.  All  these  demands, 
excepting  the  first,  were  rejected  ;  the  senate  moreover 
refused  to  ask  for  the  annulment  of  the  interdict ;  insisted 
that  its  revocation  should  take  place,  not  at  Rome,  but  at 

*  Maurocenus,  lib.  xvii,  p.  373.  Dam  (vol.  Iv.  lib.  xjtxii.  p.  547)  re- 
lates a  similar  incident  during  a  petty  war  in  the  Valteline,  in  1620,  and 
cites  Vittorio  Siri  (i.  407)  as  his  authority.  The  occurrence,  doubtleea, 
might  be  repeated,  but  Siri,  as  we  have  stated  elgewhere,  is  not  always 
trusivortliy. 

Vol.  If.— Y 


L*  fiflaerjiSati'-  ^J 


//- 


254 


REMOVAL  OF    THE  INTERDICT. 


Venice ;  and,  in  order  to  avoid  the  possibility  of  a  false 
record  of  any  proffered  atonement,  that  the  process  should 
be  conducted  verbally  and  not  in  writing.  The  spirit  of 
Paul  was  effectually  broken  by  opposition ;  and  two  slight 
attempts  at  modification  which  the  Cardinal  de  Joyeuse, 
ambassador  extraordinary  from  France,  made  in  his  behalf, 
were,  like  their  predecessors,  proposed  with  feebleness  and 
abandoned  with  resignation.  He  first  asked  that  an  em- 
bassy should  be  despatched  to  Rome  ;  secondly,  that  the 
doge  and  signory,  after  attending  mass  at  St.  Mark's,  should 
receive  a  benediction,  to  be  deemed  equivalent  to  a  formal 
remission  of  the  censures.  It  was  answered  that  such  an 
embassy  might  be  interpreted  a  solicitation,  and  such  a 
benediction  an  absolution  ;  consequently,  that  neither  could 
be  admitted.  At  length,  on  the  21st  of  April,  a 
■^•  I!:  secretary  of  the  senate  delivered  the  Canon  of  Vi- 
cenza  and  the  Abbot  of  Nervesa  to  the  French  or- 
dinary resident,  in  the  presence  of  the  Cardinal  de  Joyeuse  ; 
protesting  at  the  same  time  that  this  surrender  was  made 
only  in  deference  to  his  Christian  majesty,  and  was  not  to 
be  considered  any  abandonment  of  the  exclusive  rights 
claimed  by  the  republic  over  her  own  ecclesiastics.  The 
prisoners  were  transferred  by  the  French  ambassador  to  a 
papal  commissioner,  who  in  turn  recommended  them  to  the 
custody  of  the  officer  of  the  Ten  by  whom  they  had  first 
been  introduced.  After  this  formality,  the  cardinal,  ac- 
companied by  the  ambassador,  proceeded  to  the  Collcgio, 
whose  members  received  him  sitting  and  covered ;  and 
congratulated  them  on  the  removal  of  the  interdict;*  upon 
which  announcement  the  doge  handed  to  him  a  revocation 
of  the  protest  addressed  to  all  the  Venetian  clergy.  The 
cardinal  then  celebrated  mass,  but  not  in  St.  Mark's,  and 
not  accompanied  by  the  signory,  who  expressly  prohibited 
all  demonstrations  of  popular  joy.  Thus,  after  a  contest 
which  had  interested,  excited,  and  astonished  all  Christen- 
dom for  more  than  twelve  months,  St.  Mark,  as  Houssaye 
has  delivered  himself,t  signally  triumphed  over  St.  Peter. 
The  evil  spirit  of  the  papacy  was  strongly  exhibited, 

*  So  nicely  were  the  forms  arrangwd,  that  the  cardinal  made  this  an- 
Jiouncement's/andiuiT,  and  ihen  concluded  his  very  short  speech  sitting.— 
Maurocenus,  lib.  xvii.  p.  390. 

t  Note  on  Lettrcs  de  Card.  d'Ossat.  vol.  iv.  p.  533.  L.  290. 


FRA  PAOLO. 


255 


however,  more  than  once,  by  some  events  which  succeeded 
this  remarkable  schism.     Much  pains  were  taken  to  propa- 
gate a  belief  that  the  Cardinal  de  Joyeuse  had  absolved  the 
signory  ;  and  it  was  carefully  reported,  that  in  order  to  effect 
that  purpose,  he  had  condescended  to  the  swindling  trick 
of  makin<r  a  sign  of  the  cross  with  one  hand  under  his 
cloak,  upon  entering  the  council  chamber;  thus  benevo- 
lently conferring  remission  of  sins  upon  ignorant  and  in- 
voluntary recipients.     Before  the  close  of  the  year,  an  op- 
portunity occurred  also  of  exercising  a  petty  revenge,  which 
Paul  had  not  suflicient  magnanimity  to  resist.     His  prede- 
cessor had  established  a  right  of  examining  every  patriarch 
of  Venice  on  his  appointment ;  and  a  vacancy  havmg  oc- 
curred and  having  been  filled  up,  the  pope  summoned  the 
new  patriarch  to  Rome,  and  committed  him  to  a  Jesuit  for 
examination.* 

But  the  resentment  of  the  Vatican  by  no  means  confined 
itself  to  those  acts  of  unworthy  spitefulness  ;  far  blacker 
atrocities  were  meditated  and  attempted.  During  a  visit 
which  Scioppius,  one  of  the  most  learned  and  far  the  most 
impudentf  man  of  his  time,  paid  to  Venice,  he  informed 
Fra  Paolo  that  he  knew  by  certain  advice  how  much  the 
court  of  Rome  desired  either  his  arrest  or  his  assassination  ; 
at  the  same  time  warning  him  that  popes  have  long  arms. 
Fra  Paolo's  reply,  to  say  the  least  of  it,  was  singular,  and 
has  been  remarked  by  his  biographers  scarcely  so  much  as 
it  deserves.  After  stating  that  he  had  only  defended  a  just 
cause,  and  therefore  that  the  pontiflf  ought  not  to  feel 
offended ;  that  he  was  specially  included  in  the  public 
accommodation,  and  therefore  that  he  could  not  niistrust 
the  word  of  a  sovereign;    he  spoke  of  assassination  on 

*  Daru,  lib.  xxix.  ad.  fin.,  who  cites  Memorie  recondite  di  Vittorio  Siri, 
tomo  i.  Some  particulars  of  the  dispute  with  Clement  Vlll.,  relative  to 
the  examination  of  the  patriarch,  may  be  fotuid  in  Letires  d'Ossat,  vol. 
iv.  p.  502,  545.  L.  28fi,  290. 

t  Scioppius  was  the  person  who  denounced  Sir  Henry  Wotton  for 
his  well-known  jocular  definition  of  an  ambassador,—"  that  he  is  an 
honest  man,  sent  to  lye  abroad  for  the  good  of  the  commonwealth."  Sir 
Henry  revenged  hiiiiself  in  very  sound,  vituperative  Latin,  calling 
Scioppius,  among  oilier  hard  and  true  names,  '*  (amelicus  transfuga,  et 
Romanae  Curiae  lutulentus  circulator,  qui  script itat  solum  ut  prandere 
possit;  semicoctus  Grainmaticaster ;  vespillonifl  et  castrensis  seorli 
spuma ;"  and  adding  that  he  had  it  in  liis  jwwer  "  sexcentas  id  genu* 
Bcioppietaies  proferre,  sed  hoc  esset  ruspari  sterquilinium." 


^1 


256        ATTEMPT  TO  ASSASSINATE  FRA  PAOLO. 

political  grounds,  as  being  rarely  directed  against  the  life 
of  a  private  individual,  and  of  death  as  an  event  for  which 
he  was  fully  prepared.  "  If,  however,"  he  continued,  "  they 
should  think  to  take  me  alive  and  carry  me  off  to  Rome, 
not  all  the  power  of  the  pope  can  hinder  a  man  from  being 
more  master  of  himself  than  others  can  be  ;  so  that  my 
life  will  be  more  in  my  own  keeping  than  in  that  of  the 
pontiff."*  Scioppius  was  not  deceived ;  in  the  Octeber 
after  the  annulment  of  the  interdict,  Fra  Paolo,  returning 
late  one  evening  to  the  Convent  dei  Serviti,  his  residence 
as  official  teologo  of  the  republic,  was  attacked  on  the 
neighbouring  bridge  of  Sta.  Fosca  by  five  bravoes  ;  some  of 
whom  kept  watch  while  the  others  executed  their  bloody 
commission.  Fifteen  stabs  were  aimed  at  him,  of  which 
only  three  took  effect ;  two  in  the  neck,  one  in  the  cheek 
close  to  the  nose,  where  the  stiletto  was  turned  aside  by 
the  bone,  and  left  in  the  wound.  The  assassins  were  seen 
to  fly  to  a  gondola  in  waiting,  which  conveyed  them  to  the 
palace  of  the  nuncio  ;  and  on  the  same  night  they  passed 
over  to  Lido,  and  proceeded  in  a  well-armed  ten-oared 
vessel  in  the  direction  of  Ravenna.  No  sooner  had  the 
report  of  the  attempted  murder  and  the  asylum  of  its  per- 
petrators spread  abroad,  than  the  palace  of  the  nuncio  was 
surrounded  by  throngs  denouncing  vengeance  ;  and  the 
person  of  the  minister  became  so  much  endangered  as  to 
require  the  protection  of  a  guard  from  the  Ten.  The  plot 
was  afterward  traced  to  its  chief  agent ;  a  broken  Venetian 
merchant,  who,  flying  from  his  creditors,  had  found  security 
in  Rome,  where  he  ingratiated  himself  with  the  Borghesi  so 
far  as  to  express  to  his  correspondents  extravagant  hopes 
of  reviving  fortune,  and  even  of  the  probable  attainment 
of  a  cardinal's  hat.  Fra  Paolo's  recovery  was  long  doubt- 
ful ;  his  frame,  attenuated  by  habitual  abstemiousness, 
could  ill  endure  great  loss  of  blood ;  and  the  number  of 
physicians  to  whose  charge  public  anxiety  had  committed 
him,  contributed,  as  his  biographer  sarcastically  relates,  to 
retard  his  progress.!     For  twenty  days  he  continued  with- 

*  Vita  del  Padre  Paolo,  a  Leida,  1846,  p.  152.  Bayle  (St.  Cyran,  Rem. 
B.)  ia  the  only  ^v^iter  by  whom  we  remember  to  have  seen  this  very 
Btriking  avowal  noticed. 

t  '•  S'  agjtionse  ancora  un'  altra  accidentale  gravetza  al  male  ch*  em 
reale,  la  moUipliciii  de'  Medici,  ch'  ^  uu  male  proprio  de  Gran(lL''~-Vit« 
del  Pa«^re  Paolo.  169. 


APOLOGY  OF  JAMES  I. 


257 


out  power  of  motion,  and  the  blackness  of  the  edges  of  his 
wounds  excited  a  fear  that  the  daggers  had  been  poisoned  ; 
an  apprehension  which  increased  the  acutencss  of  his  suf- 
ferinfTS,  on  account  of  the  severe  remedies  which  it  rendered 
necessary  for  counteraction.  Nevertheless,  throughout  his 
linoferincr  confinement,  he  preserved  an  equable  and  cheerful 
temper,  resigning  himself  to  God's  will,  deprecating  inquiry 
after  the  assassins,*  and  even  drawing  smiles  from  his 
attendants  by  occasional  pleasantry.  Once,  on  some  re- 
mark offered  by  the  surgeon  in  waiting  on  the  raggedness 
of  the  wounds,  he  replied  that  they  ought  not  to  exhibit 
such  appearances,  since  the  world  said  they  had  been  dex- 
terously given  Stilo  Ronuina  Curicf.  The  poniard  left  by 
the  assassin  was  placed,  after  Fra  Paolo's  recovery,  at  the 
foot  of  a  crucifix  in  the  Church  dei  Servi,  where  it  long  re- 
mained at  the  altar  of  Sta.  Maddalena,  with  a  commemora- 
tive inscription  Dei  Filio  Liber atori.i 

The  close  alliance  which  we  have  seen  existing  between 
Venice  and  Enfjland  during  the  recent  transactions  ran 
some  hazard  of  interruption  shortly  afterward,  from  a 
literary  misunderstanding.  When  James  I.  reprinted  his 
Apology  for  the  oath  of  allegiance  which  it  had  become  ne- 
cessary to  require  after  the  detection  of  the  popish  plot, 
and  addres.sed  its  celebrated  preamble  "  to  all  Christian 
monarchs,  free  princes,  and  states,"  envoys  were  despatched 
to  present  this  volume,  more  worthy  of  the  cloister  than  of 
the  cabinet,  to  the  chief  courts  of  Europe  ;  by  which  it  was 
refused,  neglected,  or  ridiculed,  according  to  the  ^^  ^^ 
temper  of  their  respective  sovereigns.  The  senate,  iQQg] 
wishing  to  keep  well  no  less  with  the  King  of  Eng- 
land  than  with  the  pope,  in  a  controversy  to  which  in  truth 
they  attached  very  little  interest,  decreed  that  the  royal  gift 
should  be  accepted  as  a  token  of  amity ;  should  be  com- 
mitted to  the  keeping  of  the  chief  secretary  ;  be  preserved 
m  a  chest  under  lock  and  key ;  and  be  neither  exhibited 
nor  removed  without  express  permission  of  the  public 
authorities.     Sir  Henry  Wotton,t  however,  Uttle  contented 

*  On  a  report  that  they  had  been  taken,  he  expressed  great  displeasure : 
"Potriano  manifestare  qualche  cosa  che  dasee  scandoio  al  mondo  e 
nocumenio  alia  religione."— Vtfa  del  Padre  Paolo,  p.  170. 

t  Id.  p.  169,  171.  ,^r..^ 

t  Enrico  Uttonio,  as  the  name  is  smoothly  Italiamz«d  by  Diedo  in  ni» 
account  of  this  transaction.    Torn.  iv.  lib.  xiv. 

Y2 


I 


i\ 


/ 


258 


THE  USCOCCHI. 


with  the  mysterious  veneration  thus  paid  to  the  fruit  of  his 
master's  brains,  protested  with  great  vehemence  and  anger 
against  the  double-deaUng  which  received  the  work  with 
one  hand  and  rejected  it  with  the  other;   noticing  very 
justly  that  while  the  defence  of  the  King  of  England  was 
prohibited,  printed  attacks  upon  him  obtained  free  circula- 
tion.    He  concluded  by  announcing,  that  in  consequence 
of  this  affront,  he  should  consider  his  mission  at  an  end ; 
and  that   henceforward,   so  long  as  he  remained   in  the 
capital,  he  must  be  treated  only  as  a  private  individual. 
This  fierce  remonstrance  called  forth  an  especial  embassy 
of  excuse  to  England,  and  a  diligent  suppression  of  all 
tracts  offensive  to  the  royal  author.     James  is  said  to  have 
received  both  these  notifications  with  marks  of  approval, 
and  from  a  portion  of  Winwood's  correspondence  it  appears 
that  Wotton  was  considered,  to  have  been  needlessly  indig- 
nant ;  "  which  did  very  much  trouble  them  here  to  make^a 
cleanly  answer  thereunto  for  the  salving  of  the  ambassa- 
dor's credit,  who  is  censured  to  have  prosecuted  the  matter 
to  an  overgreat  extremity."* 

We  pass  on  to  a  war  which  occupied  most  of  the  reign 
A.  D.  "^  Marc'  Antonio  Memmo  ;  a  war  in  which  little 
1613.  ^o^^o^^  was  to  be  won,  but  which  terminated  use- 
fully in  the  dispersion  of  a  formidable  race  of  pirates, 
who,  during  nearly  a  hundred  years,  had  interrupted  the 
navigation  of  the  Adriatic.  Towards  the  middle  of  the 
sixteenth  century,  a  horde  of  Dalmatians,!  flying  from 
either  the  tyranny  or  the  justice  of  their  rulers,  or  seeking 
shelter  from  continued  Turkish  invasions,  found  a  secure 
asylum  in  the  strong  country  bordering  upon  the  coast  near 
Spalatro ;  and  finally  established  themselves  in  the  town 
of  Segna,  under  the  protection  of  Austria,  on  condition  of 
actmg  as  an  advanced  guard  against  the  sultan.  Segna, 
placed  in  the  recess  of  the  Bay  of  Quarnero,  is  covered  on 
the  land  side  by  a  barrier  of  uncleared  forests  and  moun- 
tains, traversed  by  rare  and  perplexed  defiles  ;  aflbrding  at 

*  Maurocenus,  lib.  xviii.  p.  420.  Winwood's  Memorials,  vol.  iji  p  77 
t  The  Uskokg  were  originally  Bulgars  or  Volokbs,  who  had  become 
Kclavonians  on  the  subjugation  of  their  country  by  the  Greeks  in  1019 
They  first  settled  in  Clissa,  then  removed  to  Zara,  and  finally  to  Segna. 
-See  concemmg  them  more  largely  in  Von  Engel,  Gesohichte  dee  Un- 
gnschen  Reichs  und  seinur  Nebeniander,  ii.  188 ;  and  Adelune,  Mithri- 
48"^s,  u.  642.  ' 


THE   USCOCCHX. 


259 


I 


every  step  fit  ambush  for  banditti,  and  at  the  same  time 
being  altogether  impracticable  for  a  regular  armed  force. 
On  the  coast,  numerous  intricate  channels  among  reefs  and 
islets,  and  a  stormy  and  shallow  sea,  rendered  the  town 
inaccessible  unless  to  boats  of  the  lightest  burden.  It  was 
believed,  too,  that  at  any  time  by  lighting  a  fire  in  one  partic- 
ular cave,  an  offshore  gale  might  be  raised  under  which  no 
vessel  could  live.  The  earth,  said  the  credulous  savages, 
heated  and  irritated  in  her  veins  by  combustion,  speaks  her 
rage  and  agony  in  a  hurricane.*  The  site,  to  use  the 
metaphor  of  Nani,  is  framed  for  the  grave  of  sailors,  and 
the  cradle  of  robbers. t 

It  is  easily  to  be  imagined  how  this  lawless  and  ferocious 
band  of  exiles,  accustomed  to  arms,  separated  from  all  ties 
of  kindred  and  of  country,  and  without  means  of  agricul- 
tural employment,  became  freebooters  by  choice,  if  not  al- 
together by  necessity  ;  and  the  transition  by  which  the 
Uscocchi  (so  named  from  the  Russian  uskakaU  to  leap  into, 
to  run  away,  and  signifying  "  fugitives")  changed  from  rob- 
bers to  pirates,  is  not  without  parallel  among  the  Bucaniers 
of  the  New  World  in  the  following  century.  Their  num- 
bers rapidly  increased  by  the  influx  of  a  mixed  rabble  of 
various  countries,  Turks,  Austrians,  Croats,  Dalmatians, 
Venetians,  and  even  English  ;t  for  Segna,  on  the  principle 
of  Romulus,  was  proclaimed  a  sanctuary  for  crime,  and 
therefore  readily  became  "  the  common  sewer"  of  the  pro- 
scribed from  all  nations.  A  population  thus  obtained  was 
supported  equally  after  the  Roman  manner ;  the  unhappy 
women  whom  force  had  ravished  from  the  neighbouring  dis- 
tricts were  considered  the  staple  of  the  tribe  ;  and  each 
widow,  on  the  loss  of  her  husband  by  any  of  those  count- 
less hazards  to  which  piratical  life  is  exposed,  was  com- 
pelled to  renew  her  matrimonial  bonds  so  long  as  she  con- 
tinued to  aftbrd  hope  of  progeny.  So  great,  however,  was 
the  devastation  resulting  from  habits  in  which  every  man's 

♦  Hist,  des  Uscoques,  p.  8,  by  Amelot  de  la  Houssaye,  from  Minacci. 

t  Hist.  Venet.  lib.  i.  p.  30. 

i  Le  General  de  mer  a  fait  pendre  fort  Ugirement  ces  tievf  Anglois, 
dont  ily  en  a  trois  qui  sont  gentils  homme*  de  qualiti,  et  un  autre  qui 
futdespendu  se  trmive  deVune  des  plus  grandes  maisons  d' Angleterre. 
— Correspmidnnce  de  Leon  Bruslart  (the  French  ambassador  at  Venice). 
Z'ttre  du  14  AoAt  1618.    A  MS.  edited  by  Daru.lib.  ^w.  vol.  iv.p.  363. 


m 


ii 


1  1A--.J  »fa^'-gfe.*t. ..  A-tKaJ^ags- 


260 


THE    USCOCCHI. 


I-!, 


hand  was  raised  against  them,  that  it  may  be  doubted 
whether  at  any  period  of  their  existence  the  Uscocchi  ever 
exceeded  one  thousand  men.  The  Turks  for  a  long  time 
were  the  greatest  sufferers  by  their  outrages,  and  it  was 
idle  for  the  divan  to  remonstrate  with  Venice,  pillaged  al- 
most equally  with  itself;  or  with  the  court  of  Austria, 
which  privately  divided  the  spoil,  and  which  occasionally 
stifled  the  murmurs  of  any  more  urgent  complaint,  by  des- 
patching a  commissary  to  hang  up  a  few  miserable  wretches, 
perhaps  less  guilty  than  their  comrades ;  or  who,  even  if 
selected  from  the  most  desperate  and  notorious  of  the  band, 
left  their  bad  eminence  to  be  speedily  occupied  by  number- 
less promising  aspirants.  "  God  keep  you  from  the  Us- 
cocchi r  became  a  proverb  at  Constantinople,  when  any  one 
wished  his  friend  immunity  from  the  worst  of  evils. 

Whenever   the   Turks   directed  an   expedition   against 
these  marauders,  Venice  also  was  seen  to  arm  ;  but  it  was 
more  to  protect  her  own  Dalmatic  islands  from  possible  in- 
vasion by  the  Mussulmans,  than  to  assist  in  suppressing  the 
pirates.    Sometimes,  indeed,  an  Uscock  vessel  would  strike 
to  a  Venetian  galley,  and  there  are  instances  in    which 
seventeen   and   even  sixty  heads  were  forwarded   to  the 
signory,  and  exhibited  to  the  populace  as  distinguished  tro- 
phies, worthy  of  bearing  part  in  the  sumptuous  pageant  of 
the  marriage  of  the  Adriatic.     "  No  one  recollected,"  on 
one  of  these  occasions  writes  Minucci,  Archbishop  of  Zara, 
who  has  composed  a  history  of  the  Uscocchi,  "  to  have  seen 
so  many  heads  at  a  time  ;  they  made  a  most  agreeable  spec- 
tacle, and  did  infinite  honour  to  the  conquerors."    Irritated 
by  some  fresh  violence,  the  Venetians  at  length  blockaded 
A.  D.     ^^?  mouth  of  the  Bay  of  Quarnero  ;  and  the  pirates, 
1600.    *^"^^"   inland  for  sustenance,  pillaged,  under  the 
Austrian  standard,  that  district  of  Istria  which  be- 
longed to  the  republic.     So  direct  an  outrage  upon  the  ter- 
ritory  of  an  ally  compelled  the  Austrian  government,  if  it 
would  avoid  a  war,  to  measures  of  unusual  severity  ;  and 
Rabata,  a  high  counsellor  of  state  in  Carniola,  was  deputed 
lo  chastise  the  offenders  to  the  full  satisfaction  of  Venice. 

Among  the  chiefs  upon  whom  he  first  inflicted  summary 
punishment,  we  hear  with  surprise  of  a  Count  of  Possidaria, 
who  had  disgraced  his  high  descent  by  assuming  a  command 
among  these  outcasts.    Another  ruffian,  who  attempted  de- 


l! 


THE    TJSCOCCHI. 


261 


fence,  and  who  was  cut  to  pieces,  had  recently  crowned  a 
series  of  unheard-of  cruelties  by  fastening  under  hatches 
the  crew  of  a  frigate  captured  from  the  Count  of  Zara,  and 
then  sending  them  adrift.  The  battlements  of  Segna  were 
studded  with  the  heads  of  these  and  other  principal  male- 
factors ;  most  of  the  remainder  were  dispersed,  and  con- 
cealed themselves  in  the  neighbouring  fastnesses  ;  and  one 
hundred  only  of  the  least  guilty  were  permitted  to  occupy 
the  town.  But  no  sooner  were  the  troops  withdrawn  under 
whose  protection  this  tardy  justice  had  been  executed,  than 
the  pirates  returned,  drunk  with  fury  and  thirsting  for  re- 
venge, massacred  Rabata  with  circumstances  of  the  most 
savage  barbarity,  and  reoccupied  Segna  as  their  own  do- 
main. This  success,  and  the  impunity  with  which  it  was 
permitted  to  be  enjoyed,  naturally  increased  the  daring  of 
the  Uscocchi.  At  various  times  in  following  years,  they 
plundered  the  Venetian  islands  off  their  coast ;  captured  a 
galley  charged  with  government  despatches  and  a  large 
freight  of  treasure  ;  made  an  attempt  upon  Pola ;  and  even 
carried  off  a  provveditore,  whom,  exhausted  by  terror  and 
fatigue,  they  transported  from  cave  to  cave,  and  from  moun- 
tain to  mountain,  till  an  Austrian  detachment  tracked  and 
delivered  him.* 

It  was  by  no  means  easy  to  determine  how  much  of  this 
piracy  was  tolerated,  if  not  favoured,  by  Austria  ;  how  much 
was  committed  in  spite  of  her  control.  The  wives  and 
daughters  of  nobles  holding  high  rank  in  her  court  were 
said  to  be  decorated  with  plundered  Venetian  jewels,  and  a 
misintelligence  between  the  two  governments,  the  necessary 
result  of  suspicion,  was  brought  to  its  height  by  a  greater 

*  Among  many  sickening  circumstances  of  horror,  Pra  Paolo,  in  his 
continuation  of  Minucci's  History,  mentions  one  most  ludicrous  inci- 
dent. A  merchant-vessel,  bound  for  the  Lagune,  having  been  captured 
by  the  Uscocchi,  was  carried  to  Segna  for  a  division  of  the  spoil ;  when, 
to  the  no  small  discomfiture  of  the  pirates,  it  was  found  to  consist  chiefly 
of  honey,  and  many  cases  of  a  substance  unknown  to  them,  but  which, 
from  its  appearance  and  sweet  taste,  they  believed  to  be  some  species  of 
those  choice  confectionaries  for  which  Venice  was  celebrated.  This 
sweetmeat,  accordingly,  they  devoured  most  voraciously,  both  to  com- 
pensate their  disappointment,  and  also  to  gratify  their  appetite.  The 
cmisternation  of  the  physicians  of  Segna  may  be  imagmed  when,  upon 
examining  the  remaining  contents  of  the  boxes,  ihey  discovered  tbemto 
be— manna. 


\ 


h 


262 


ENORMITIES  OF  THE  USCOCCHI. 


EXTERMINATION  OF  THE  USCOCCHI. 


2G3 


i\ 


atrocity  than  any  yet  offered  to  the  flag  of  St.  Mark.  A 
galley,  commanded  by  Cristoforo  Veniero,  was  sur- 
1613  P"^^^  '^^^  captured  by  a  greatly  superior  force  ;  and 
the  crew,  being  made  to  pass,  one  by  one,  from  their 
own  vessel  to  the  pirates'  boats,  were  massacred  in  cold 
blood,  and  their  bodies  thrown  into  the  sea.  The  captain 
himself  was  reserved  till  they  gained  land,  and  then  his 
head,  having  been  struck  from  his  body,  under  the  eyes  of 
some  ladies  of  rank,  his  passengers,  was  placed  on  the  table 
at  which  his  murderers  took  their  repast.  During  that  ac- 
cursed banquet  the  cannibals  roasted  and  divided  their  vic- 
tim's heart ;  and  dipping  sops  of  bread  in  his  yet  warm 
blood,  swallowed  them  with  greedy  delight.  One  of  their 
superstitions,  it  appears,  encouraged  a  belief  that  such  gen- 
eral participation  in  the  blood  of  an  enemy  was  a  sure 
pledge  of  mutual  fidelity ;  and  that  all  who  shared  in  this 
inhuman  orgy  were  henceforward  linked  indissolubly  to- 
gether in  a  common  destiny.  Having  completed  these  fiend- 
like rites,  they  partitioned  the  booty,  and  mounted  the  can- 
non of  the  prize  upon  their  ramparts. 

Loud  as  were  the  demands  for  vengeance  which  intelli- 
gence of  this  most  brutal  outrage  roused  in  Venice,  the 
senate  was  at  the  time  too  much  entangled  by  apprehen- 
sions of  an  open  breach  with  Spain  (in  defence  of  the  claim 
of  their  ally,  the  Duke  of  Savoy,  to  the  principality  of 
Mountferrat)  to  act  with  becoming  vigour.  To  their  re- 
monstrances, the  Governor  of  Segna  answered  by  expres- 
sions of  empty  regret,  lamenting  that  which  he  gently 
termed  an  accident  and  a  mistake  ;  and  he  demurred  even  as 
to  the  restoration  of  the  prize,  till  he  should  receive  further 
instructions  from  his  court.  In  spite  of  the  reluctance  of 
the  signory,  negotiations  thus  contemptuous  and  unsatis- 
factory terminated,  as  may  be  supposed,  in  positive  war ; 
and  a  contest,  inglorious  and  injurious  to  both  parties,  en- 
sued between  Venice  and  Austria  in  Friuh.  Its  incidents 
are  little  worth  narration,*  but  one  of  them  is  too  remark- 
able to  be  wholly  omitted.  The  republic,  more  alarmed  at 
the  danger  impending  from  Spain  than  at  that  which  she 
absolutely  encountered  from  the  enemy  against  whom  she 

*  They  have  been  detailed  in  two  books  by  Faustino  Moisesso.    Ven, 
4to.  1623. 


i 


had  taken  the  field,  sought  and  found  allies  in  Holland,  the 
state  most  permanently  hostile  to  the  court  of  Madrid.  In 
consequence  of  a  treaty  with  that  power,  four  thousand  here- 
tic troops  engaged  in  the  Venetian  service,  under  Count 
John  of  Nassau,  landed  on  the  Piazzetta^  and,  with  the 
concurrence  of  its  rulers,  during  many  days  held  military 
possession  of  their  otherwise  impregnable  capital.  But  for 
the  fidelity  of  her  new  friends,  Venice,  from  that  hour, 
might  have  sunk  into  a  dependence  of  the  United  Prov- 
inces ;  and  such  in  all  human  transactions  is  the  occasional 
folly  of  the  wise,  that  the  most  subtle,  the  most  sagacious, 
the  most  wary,  and  the  most  enduring  polity  which  has  been 
known  among  mankind,  might  have  sealed  her  own  de- 
struction, by  an  act  of  almost  judicial  blindness,  two  centu- 
ries before  that  epoch  which  afterward  proved  to  be  her  ful- 
ness of  time  ! 

The  despatch  of  that  Dutch  force  to  the  seat  of  war,  the 
consequent  apprehension  of  losing  Gradisca,  one  of  the 
strongest  Austrian  frontier  towns,  which  the  Venetians 
had  long  besieged,  and  the  ambitious  views  which  the 
Archduke  Ferdinand,  already  possessed  of  the  crovm  of 
Bohemia,  was  directing  upon  that  of  the  empire,  inclined 
him  to  terminate  a  quarrel  which,  during  three  years,  had 
wasted  his  resources  without  a  chance  of  benefit.  France, 
by  her  mediation,  first  adjusted  the  dispute  between  Spain 
and  the  Duke  of  Savoy,  to  whom  the  signory  had  fur- 
nished both  troops  and  subsidies ;  and  she  then  recon- 
ciled Venice  with  Austria,  by  a  treaty  ratified  at  ^ 
Madrid  ;  the  most  important  terms  of  which  stipu-  1617. 
lated  the  final  dispersion  of  the  Uscocchi,  and  the 
destruction  of  their  flotilla.  Thus  terminated  the  existence 
of  a  horde  of  pirates  which  could  have  been  protracted  so 
long  only  by  the  duplicity  of  Austria ;  and  which  had  cost 
Venice,  during  the  last  thirty  years, — in  her  own  commercial 
losses,  in  indemnities  paid  to  the  Turks  for  depredations  in 
the  gulf  which  she  affected  to  protect,  and  lastly,  in  ex- 
penses of  actual  war, — no  less  than  twenty  millions  of  gold. 


i 


t 


i\ 


i8rtaiaMarwaMagtoBSSiiBaaUit.k<faK 


264 


SIR   HENRY  WOTTON. 


CONSPIRACY  OF  1618. 


265 


CHAPTER  XIX. 

FROM  A.  D.  1618    TO    A.  D.   1669. 

Conspiracy  of  1618— Sentence  of  Foscarini— Attack  upon  the  Council 
of  Ten— Venetian  Manners— War  of  Candia. 


|, 


A.  D. 

DOGES. 

1618. 

xcv. 

XCVI. 
XCVII. 

NiCOLO   DONATO. 

Antonio  Priuli. 
Francesco  Contarini. 

1623. 

1625. 

XCVIII. 

Giovanni  Cornaro. 

1630. 

XCIX. 

NicoLo  Contarini. 

1632. 

c. 

Francesco  Erizzo. 

1645. 

CI. 

Francesco  Molino. 

1655. 

en. 

Carlo  Contarini. 

1656. 

cm. 

Francesco  Cornaro. 

CIV. 

Bertuccio  Valiero. 

1657. 

cv. 

Giovanni  Pezaro. 

1660. 

CVI. 

BoMiNico  Contarini. 

#1 


Sir  Henry  Wotton,  who,  notwithstanding  his  recent 
differences  with  the  senate,  still  remained  as  English  ambas- 
sador at  Venice,  has  left  an  account  of  the  elections  of  two 
successive  doges,  Nicolo  Donato  and  Antonio  Phiuli, 
which  occurred  in  1618,  within  a  month  of  each  other :  and 
from  his  details  it  appears,  that  in  spite  of  the  complicated 
intermixture  of  repeated  ballotings  and  scrutinies,  not  less 
intrigue  was  employed  in  the  disposal  of  the  heretta  than  in 
that  of  the  triple  crown.  In  his  dedicatory  epistle,*  Wotton 
^  ^  writes  also  as  follows,  on  the  25th  of  May,  relative  to 
1618*  ^^^  detection  of  a  great  conspiracy  which  at  that  time 
was  bruited  abroad.  "  The  whole  town  is  here  at 
present  in  horror  and  confusion  upon  the  discovering  of  a 

*  To  a  discourse  entitled  The  Election  of  the  New  Duke  of  Venice 
after  the  Death  of  Giovanni  Bembo. 


foul  and  fearful  conspiracy  of  the  French  against  this  state ; 
whereof  no  less  than  thirty  have  already  suffered  very  con- 
dign punishment,  between  men  strangled  in  prison,  drowned 
in  the  silence  of  the  night,  and  hanged  in  pubUc  view  ;  and 
yet  the  bottom  is  invisible." 

However  meager  may  be  this  notice  of  an  event  perhaps 
more  familiarly  known  by  name  to  English  readers  than  any 
other  in  the  history  of  Venice,  there  are  very  few  authentic 
particulars  which  can  be  added  to  Wotton's  brief  statement. 
Muratori  indeed  has  scarcely  exaggerated  the  obscurity  in 
which  this  incident  is  enveloped  when  he  affirms  that  only 
one  fact  illuminates  its  darkness  ;  namely,  that  several  hun- 
dred French  and  Spaniards  engaged  in  the  service  of  the 
republic  were  arrested  and  put  to  death.  The  researches 
of  Comte  Daru  have  brought  to  light  some  hitherto  un- 
known contemporary  documents  ;  but  even  the  inexhausti- 
ble diligence  of  that  most  laborious,  accurate,  and  valuable 
writer  has  been  baffled  in  the  hope  of  obtaining  certainty  as 
its  reward  ;  and  he  has  been  compelled  to  content  himself 
with  the  addition  of  one  hypothesis  more  to  those  already 
proposed  in  explanation  of  this  mystery. 

All  that  can  be  positively  affirmed  is,  that  during  the 
summer  of  1617,  Jacques  Pierre,  a  Norman  by  birth,  whose 
youth  had  been  spent  in  piratical  enterprises  in  the  Levan- 
tine seas,  from  which  he  had  acquired  no  inconsiderable 
celebrity,  fled  from  the  service  of  the  Spanish  Duke  d'Os- 
suna,  Viceroy  of  Naples  ;  and  having  offered  himself  at 
the  arsenal  of  Venice,  was  engaged  there  in  a  subordinate 
office.  Not  many  days  after  his  arrival  in  the  Lagune^ 
Pierre  denounced  to  the  inquisitors  of  state  a  conspiracy, 
projected,  as  he  said,  by  the  Duke  d'Ossuna,  and  favoured 
by  Don  Alfonso  della  Cueva,  Marquis  de  Bedemar,*  at  that 
time  resident  ambassador  from  Spain.  The  original  minutes 
of  Pierre's  disclosures,  written  in  French,  still  exist  among 
the  correspondence  of  M.  Leon  Bruslart,  the  contemporary 

*  To  whom  is  attributed  the  authorship  of  the  celebrated  anonymous 
tract  Squittinio  della  Liberia  Vcmta  ;  the  first  edition  of  which,  with 
the  exception  of  very  few  copies  (one  of  which  is  now  in  the  British 
Museum),  was  destroyed  by  order  of  the  signory.  It  became  so  scarce 
in  consequence,  that  seventy  years  afterward,  when  reprinted  in  Italian, 
the  text  was  borrowed  by  retranslation  from  a  French  version  by  Ame- 
lot  de  la  Houssaye.  Accident  has  thrown  into  our  possession  a  MS., 
ftirly  transcribed,  of  the  first  edition. 
Vol.  IL— Z 


M  I 


'•! 


'  1 


■I 


266 


EXECUTIONS. 


J 


1/ 


ambassador  from  the  court  of  France  to  the  republic  ;*  and 
they  were  translated  into  Italian,  with  which  language 
Pierre  was  but  imperfectly  acquainted,  by  his  friend  Renault, 
in  order  that  they  might  be  presented  to  the  inquisitors.  In 
this  plot  Pierre  avowed  himself  to  be  chief  agent  ;  his  pre- 
tended abandonment  of  the  Duke  d'Ossuna  forming  one 
part  of  the  stratagem :  and  ho  added  that  his  commission 
enjoined  him  to  seduce  the  Dutch  troops  employed  in  the 
late  war,  who  still  remamed  in  Venice  and  its  neighbour- 
hood ;  to  fire  the  city  ;  to  seize  and  massacre  the  nobles  ,•  to 
overthrow  the  existing  government ;  and  ultimately  to  trans- 
fer the  state  to  the  Spanish  crown.  The  sole  immediate 
step  taken  by  the  inquisitors  in  consequence  of  these  reve- 
lations was  the  secret  execution  of  Spinosa,  a  Neapolitan, 
whom  Pierre  described  as  an  emissary  of  the  Duke  d'Os- 
suna; and  whom  he  appears  to  have  regarded  with  jealousy 
as  a  spy  upon  his  own  conduct.  For  the  rest,  the  magis- 
trates contented  themselves,  as  it  seems,  by  awaiting  the 
maturity  of  the  plot  with  silent  vigilance.  Ten  months 
elapsed,  during  which  Pierre  communicated  on  the  one 
hand  with   the  Duke  d'Ossuna,  unsuspicious  of  his  trea- 

chery,  and  on  the  other  with  the  inquisitors ;  till 
,g^^     at  the  expiration  of  that  term  he  was  seized  by  an 

order  of  the  Ten,  while  employed  on  his  duties 
with  the  fleet,  and  drowned  without  the  grant  of  sufficient 
delay  even  for  previous  religious  confession.  More,  perhaps 
many  more,  than  three  hundred  French  and  Spaniards  en- 
gaged in  various  naval  and  military  capacities  were  at  the 
same  time  delivered  to  the  executioner  :  and  Renault,  after 
undergoing  numerous  interrogatories,  and  being  placed 
seven  times  on  the  cord,  was  hanged  by  one  foot  on  a  gib- 
bet on  the  Piazzetta,  which  day  after  day  presen/.ed  similar 
exhibitions  of  horror. 

This  evidence  of  Pierre  remained  at  the  time  concealed 
in  the  bosoms  of  the  inquisitors  to  whom  it  had  been  de- 
livered ;  and  no  official  declarations  satisfied  public  curiosity 
as  to  the  cause  of  the  sanguinary  executions  which  de- 
formed the  capital.     A  rumor  indeed  spread  itself  abroad, 

*  These  papers,  according  to  a  despatch  of  M.  Leon  Bruslart,  dated 
19th  July,  1618,  ont  estei-  trouvrs  dedans  un  roffre  de  Jacques  Pierre  ; 
and  thus  came  into  his  hands.  It  is  strange  that  they  escaped  the  vigi- 
lance of  the  inquisiUon  of  slate. 


REPORT  OF  THE  TEN  TO  THE  SENATE.   267 

and,  although  not  traced  to  any  certain  authority,  was  uni- 
versally credited,  that  a  great  peril  had  been  escaped  ;  that 
Venice  had  trembled  on  the  very  brink  of  destruction  ;  and 
that  the  Spaniards  had  meditated  her  ruin.     Popular  fury 
was  accordingly  directed  against  the  Marquis  de  Bedemar  ; 
and  so  fierce  were  the  menaces  of  summary  vengeance,  that 
the  ambassador  was  forced  to  protest  his  innocence  before 
the  Collcgioj  more  in  the  spirit  of  one  deprecating  punish- 
ment than  defying  accusation.     He  then  earnestly  solicited 
protection  against  the  rabble  surrounding  his  palace  ;  for 
"  God  knows,"  affirmed  his  pale  and  affrighted  secretary 
more  than  once,  "  the  danger  of  our  residence  is  great  I"    The 
vice-doge,  who  during  the  interregnum  between  the  death 
of  one  chief  magistrate  and  the  election  of  another,  presided 
over  the  Collegio^  replied  vaguely,  coldly,  and  formally  ;  and, 
the   application  having  been  renewed  without  any  more 
favourable  result,   Bedemar,  justly  apprehensive  for  his 
safety,  seized  a  pretext  of  withdrawing  till  a  successor  to 
his    embassy   was    appointed.      Meantime,    considerable 
doubts  were  entertained,  not  only  by  the  resident  foreign 
ministers, — especially  by  that  of  France,  better  informed 
than   his    brethren    through   the    possession   of    Pierre's 
minutes, — but  by  the  Venetian  senators  themselves  also, 
whether    any    conspiracy   whatever    had    really    existed- 
Nevertheless,  in  spite  of  these  misgivings  not  obscurely 
expressed,  it  was  not  till  the  expiration  of  five  months 
that  the  Ten  presented  a  report  to  the  senate,  de- 
tailing  the  information  which  they  had  received,  and  the 
views  upon  which  they  had  acted.     That  report,  however, 
is  so  manifestly  contradicted  in  many  very  important  in- 
stances by  Pierre's  deposition?,  that  it  must  be  considered  as 
drawn  up  and  garbled  solely  with  the  intention  of  making 
a  case ;  and  therefore  as  revealing  only  so  much  truth, 
dashed  and  brewed  with  a  huge  proportion  of  falsehood,  as 
it  suited  the  interests  of  the  magistrates  to  exhibit  to  public 
view.     All  mention  of  the  denouncements  of  Pierre  during 
the  long  period  of  ten  months  is  carefully  suppressed,  and 
yet  no  fact  in  history  is  more  distinctly  proved  than  that  he 
did  so  communicate.     The  first  intimation  of  the  plot  is 
there  said  to  have  been  given  but  a  few  days  before  it  was 
to  have  been  executed,  by  two  Frenchmen,  Montcassin  and 
Balthazar  Juven,  whom  Pierre  had  endeavoured  to  seduce 


tua^fvi^? 


■  x-:'fi^v^"^:':i' :". 


i\ 


268 


FALSE  HYPOTHESIS  OF  ST.  REAL. 


"  Look  at  these  Venetians,"  said  the  daring  conspirator 
one  day  to  his  apparent  proselytes,  "  they  affect  to  chain 
the  lion  ;  but  the  lion  sometimes  devours  his  master,  es- 
pecially when  that  master  uses  him  ill."  According  to 
their  further  evidence,  some  troops  despatched  by  the  Duke 
d'Ossuna  were  to  land  by  night  on  the  PiazzettUy  and  to 
occupy  all  the  strongholds  of  the  city ;  numerous  treason- 
able agents  already  within  the  walls  were  to  master  the 
dep6ts  of  arras  ;  and  fire,  rapine,  and  massacre  were  to 
bring  the  enterprise  to  consummation. 

The  papers  above  mentioned,  together  with  a  few  letters 
from  the  doge  to  the  Venetian  ambassador  at  Milan,  and 
one  or  two  other  not  very  important  documents  contained 
in  the  archives  of  Venice,  all  printed  by  Comte  Daru,  are 
the  sole  authentic  vouchers  for  this  conspiracy  now  known 
to  exist ;  and  it  must  be  confessed  that  they  are  insufficient 
for  its  elucidation.  The  Abb^  St.  Real,  who  for  a  long 
time  was  esteemed  the  chief  historian  of  this  dark  transac- 
tion, is  an  agreeable  and  attractive  writer ;  but  since  he 
was  unacquainted  with  the  report  of  the  Ten,  since  he 
does  not  cite  the  correspondence  of  the  French  ambassador 
containing  Pierre's  depositions,  and  since  he  frequently 
varies  from  a  MS.  which  he  does  cite,  The  Interroga- 
tories of  the  Accused^*  a  MS.  indeed,  which,  even  when 
quoted  faithfully,  is  often  contradicted  by  the  few  established 
facts,  and  by  numerous  well-known  usages  of  the  Venetian 
government,  little  faith  can  be  attached  to  his  narrative. 
It  was  his  opinion,  and  it  has  been  that  which  has  most 
generally  prevailed,  that  the  Duke  d'Ossuna,  the  Marquis 
de  Bedemar,  and  Don  Pedro  di  Toledo,  Governor  of  Milan, 
mutually  concerted  a  plan  for  the  destruction  of  Venice, 
the  chief  execution  of  which  was  intrusted  to  Pierre  and 
Renault :  and  that,  on  the  very  eve  of  its  explosion,  Jaffier, 
one  of  their  band,  touched  by  the  magnificence  of  the  es- 
pousals of  the  Adriatic  which  he  had  just  witnessed,  was 
shaken  from  his  stern  purpose,  and  revealed  the  conspiracy. 
In  order  to  overthrow  the  latter  part  of  this  hypothesis,  it 
may  be  sufficient  to  state  that  the  first  executions  took 
place  on  the  14th  of  May,  1618,  and  that  it  was  not  till  the 

♦  A  translation  of  this  document  Is  given  by  Daru :  the  original  Italian 
may  be  found  in  the  ♦'  Memorie  recondite"  of  Vittorio  Siri,  i.  407. 


COMTE  DARU  S  EXPLANATION. 


269 


24th  of  that  month  that  the  feast  of  Ascension  and  its  gor- 
geous ceremonies  occurred  in  the  same  year. 

Comte  Daru,  on  the  other  hand,  first  explains  a  design 
which  it  is  notorious  was  entertained  by  the  Duke  d'Ossuna 
to  convert  his  viceroyalty  of  Naples  into  a  kingdom,  the 
crown  of  which,  wrested  from  Spain,  should  be  placed  on 
his  own  head.  And  hence  he  establishes  the  impossibility 
that  d'Ossuna  should  at  the  same  moment  be  plotting  the 
overthrow  of  Venice  ;  that  power  whose  assistance,  or  at 
least  whose  connivance,  was  one  of  the  weapons  most  ne- 
cessary for  his  success.  On  these  grounds,  Comte  Daru 
contends  that  the  duke  maintained  a  secret  understanding 
both  with  the  signory  and  the  court  of  France  ;  that,  refining 
on  political  duplicity,  he  deceived  Pierre  by  really  instruct- 
ing him  to  gain  over  the  Dutch  troops  quartered  in  the 
Lagune ;  not,  however,  as  his  emissary  supposed,  to  be  em- 
ployed ultimately  for  the  seizure  of  Venice,  but  in  truth  for 
that  of  Naples  ;  that  Pierre's  courage  was  not  proof  against 
the  dangers  with  which  his  apparently  most  hazardous 
commission  beset  him  ;  and  that  accordingly  he  betrayed 
his  employer,  and  revealed  to  the  inquisitors  a  plot  which 
they  well  knew  to  be  feigned  ;  and,  lastly,  that  when  the 
ambitious  plans  of  Ossuna,  partially  discovered  before 
their  time  by  the  Spanish  government,  might  have  com- 
promised Venice  also  if  they  had  been  fully  elucidated  ;  in 
order  to  blot  out  each  syllable  of  evidence  which  could  bear, 
even  indirectly,  upon  the  transaction,  so  far  as  she  was 
concerned,  it  was  thought  expedient  to  remove  every  indi- 
vidual who  had  been  even  unwittingly  connected  with  it. 
So  fully  was  this  abominable  wickedness  perpetrated,  that 
both  the  accused  and  the  accusers,  the  deceivers  and  the 
deceived,  those  either  faithless  or  faithful  to  their  treason, 
the  tools  who  either  adhered  to  or  who  betrayed  d'Ossuna, 
who  sought  to  destroy  or  to  preserve  A'^enice,  were  alike 
enveloped  in  one  common  fate,  and  silenced  in  the  same 
sure  keeping  of  the  grave.  Some  few,  respecting  whose 
degree  of  participation  a  slight  doubt  arose,  were  strangled, 
on  the  avowed  principle  that  all  must  be  put  to  death  who 
were  in  any  way  implicated*,  others  were  drowned  by 
night,  in  order  that  their  execution  might  make  no  noise,* 

*  Laurent  Bnilard,  concerning  whose  fate  much  discussion  arose,  was 
strangled  par  beaucoup  de  considtirations  et  par  tuie  suit  du  parti  qu'oo 

Z2 


!    f 


'■a»iag»i~*'S'**a'^a.rih..,.v.  H^-  ^.^ 


270 


OTWAV  S  VENICE  PRESERVED. 


Moncassin,  one  of  the  avowed  informers,  was  pensioned, 
spirited  away  to  Cyprus,  and  there  despatched  in  a  drunken 
quarrel ;  and  if  it  be  asserted  that  his  companion  Balthazar 
Juven  was  permitted  to  survive,  it  is  because  he  is  the  only 
individual  concerning  whose  final  destiny  we  cannot  pro- 
nounce with  certainty.* 

Of  one  personage  who  holds  an  important  station  in  St. 
Real's  romance,  and  yet  more  so  in  Otway's  coarse  and 
boisterous  tragedy,  which,  by  dint  of  some  powerful  coups 
de  theatre^  still  maintains  possession  of  the  English  stage, 
we  have  hitherto  mentioned  but  the  name ;  and,  in  fact, 
even  for  that  name  we  are  indebted  only  to  the  more  than 
suspected  summary  of  the  Interrogatories  of  the  Accused. 
Antoine  Jaffier,  a  French  captain,  is  there  made  chief  evi- 
dence against  Pierre  and  Renault,  who  are  employed  by 
d'Ossuna,  as  he  vaguely  states,  to  surprise  some  maritime 
place  belonging  to  the  republic.     This  informer  was  re- 
warded with  four  thousand  sequins,  and  instructed  forth- 
with to  quit  the  Venetian  territories  ;  but  having,  while  at 
Brescia,  renewed  communications  with  suspected  persons, 
he  was  brought  back  to  the  Lagune   and  drowned.     The 
minute  particularities  of  Jaffier's  depositions,  and  the  motive 
which  prompted  him  to  offer  them  (the  latter,  as  we  have 
already  shown,  resting  on  a  gross  anachronism),  are,  we 
beheve,  pure  inventions  by  St.  Real ;  and  Otway  has  used 
a  poet's  license  to  palliate  still  further  deviations  from  au- 
thentic history.     Under  his  hands,  Pierre— whom  all  ac- 
counts conspire  in  representing  to  us  as  a  foreign,  vulgar, 
and  mercenary  bravo,  equally  false  to  every  party,  and 
frightened  into  confession — is  transformed  into  a  Venetian 
patriot,  the  proud  champion  of  his  country's  liberty  ;  who 
declaims  in    good    set,  round,   customary  terms   against 
slavery  and  oppression  ;  and  who,  in  the  end,  escapes  a 
mode  of  execution  unknown  to  Venice,  by  persuading  the 

a^it  pris  de  mettre  &  mort  tous  ceux  qui  ttaient  impliqu^s  dans  cette 
affaire.  The  brothers  Desbouleaux  were  drowned  by  night  in  the 
Canale  Orfano,  pour  ne  point  ^bruiter  I'affaire ;  and  the  instructions 
sent  to  the  admiral  who  was  to  drown  Pierre  were,  to  fulfil  his  commis- 
sion avec  le  moins  de  bruit  possible.  Accordingly  that  ruffian  and 
forty-five  of  his  accomplices  were  drowned  at  once  sans  bruit.— Inter- 
xogatoire  des  Accuses,  translated  by  Daru,  vol.  viii.  $  x. 

*  It  IS  believed  that  Balthazar  Juven,  and  a  relation  of  the  Marechal 
de  Lesdiguieres,  who  is  stated  to  have  escaped  punishment,  are  one 
and  the  eame  person. 


REFLECTIONS  ON  THE  CONSPIRACY. 


271 


friend  who  has  betrayed  him,  and  whom  he  has  conse- 
quently renounced,  to  stab  him  to  the  heart,  in  order  "  to 
preserve  his  memory."  The  weak,  whining,  vacillating, 
uxorious  Jaffier,  by  turns  a  cut-throat  and  a  king's-evidence ; 
now  pawning,  now  fondling,  and  now  menacing  with  his 
dagger  an  imaginary  wife  ;  first  placing  his  comrade's  life 
in  jeopardy,  then  begging  it  agninst  his  will,  and  finally 
taking  it  with  his  own  hand,  is  a  yet  more  imhappy  creation 
of  wayward  fancy  ;  and  it  is  only  in  the  names  of  the  con- 
spirators, in  the  introduction  of  an  Englishman,  Eliot 
(whom  he  has  brought  nearer  vernacular  spelling  than  he 
found  him, — Haillot),*  and  in  the  character  of  Rainault,  that 
Otway  is  borne  out  by  authority.  The  last-mentioned 
person  is  described  by  the  French  ambassador  as  a  sot,  a 
gambler,  and  a  sharper,  whose  rogueries  are  well  known  to 
all  the  world  ;  in  a  word,  therefore,  as  a  fit  leader  of  a  revo- 
lutionary crew,  wrought  up,  "without  the  least  remorse, 
with  fire  and  sword  to  exterminate"  all  who  bore  the  stamp 
of  nobility ;  and  not  as  the  most  fitting  depository  in  which 
Belvidera's  honour  might  be  lodged  as  a  security  for  that 
of  her  irresolute  husband. 

Whatever  hypothesis  may  be  adopted,  be  this  conspiracy 
true  or  false,  there  is  no  bloodier,  probably  no  blacker  page 
in  history  than  that  which  records  its  development.  Were 
it  not  for  the  immeasurable  weight  of  guilt  which  must 
press  upon  the  memory  of  the  rulers  of  Venice  if  we  sup- 
pose the  plot  to  have  been  altogether  fictitious,  we  should 
assuredly  admit  that  the  evidence  greatly  preponderates  in 
favour  of  that  assertion.  But  respect  for  human  nature 
compels  us  to  hesitate  in  admitting  a  charge  so  monstrous. 
Five  months  after  the  commencement  of  the  executions 
either  a  tardy  gratitude  or  a  profane  mockery  was  offered 
to  Heaven ;  and  the  doge  and  nobles  returned  thanks  for 
their  great  deliverance  by  a  solemn  service  at  St.  Mark's. 

In  the  dearth  of  matters  of  external  interest,  our  atten- 
tion is  forcibly  attracted  to  an  attempt  made  by  the  Great 
Council,  a  few  years  after  tliis  conspiracy,  to  abridge  the 
formidable  authority  of  the  Ten.  That  tribunal,  long 
odious  to  the  majority  of  nobles  who  cowered  under  its 

"  Nani,  iii.  p.  169     He  was  to  have  commanded  the  naval  part  of  the 
enterprise, 


272 


EXECUTION    OF   FOSCARINI. 


despotism,  had  greatly  lessened  the  prestige  of  infallibility 
to  which  it  was  mainly  indebted  for  support,  by  the  dis- 
covery of  a  most  painful  and  irreparable  error  in  one  of  its 
judgments.     The  encouragement  of  secret  denunciations 
mimifestly  gives  room  for  the  exercise  of  most  of  the  evil 
pa&sions  of  our  nature ;  and  the  lions^  mouths  under  the  ar- 
cade ai  the  summit  of  the  Giant's  Stairs,  which  gaped 
widely  to  receive  anonymous  charges,  were  no  doubt  far 
more  often  employed  as  vehicles  of  private  malice  than  of 
zeal  for  the  public  welfiire.     To  that  baneful  mode  of  dis- 
covering offences  the  constitution  of  the  Ten  added  a  sys- 
tem of  espionage  unparalleled   in    fraudulence   and  mys- 
tery ;  and  the  trade  of  informers  had  become  equally  gain- 
ful, and  their  number  equally  great,  with  that  of  their  de- 
testable predecessors,  the  delatores  of  imperial  Rome.     It 
was  easy  for  those  hired  trackers  of  crime,  by  banding 
together,  to  partition  among  themselves  the  separate  char- 
acters of  witnesses  and  of  accusers  ;   and  no  innocence 
could  hope  to  escape  the  insidious  chase  if  the  cry  were 
once  up  and  the  blood-hounds  were  slipped  upon  its  foot- 
ing.    In   1662,   Antonio  Foscarini,   a   Cavalier e,*   and  a 
senator,  who  had  once  filled  the  honourable  office  of  am- 
bassador to  the  court  of  France,  and  who  appears  also  to 
have  been  intimately  known  to  our  own  James  I.,  was  de- 
nounced to  the  inquisitors  by  two  professed  spies  of  mean 
condition  and  nearly  connected  with  each  other.      He  was 
accused  of  frequenting  the  Spanish  minister's  palace  by 
night  and  in  disguise  ;  and  the  recent  occurrences  having 
rendered  the  envoy  of  that  cabinet  more  obnoxious  than 
any  other  to  public  jealousy,  the  charge,  which  if  estab- 
lished would  lead  to  no  less  than  capital  punishment,  was 
greedily  entertained.     The  stipulated  reward  was  paid,  the 
secretary  of  the  ambassador  was  named  as  furnishing  the 
information,  and  the  inquisitors,  without  requiring  the  tes- 
timony of  that  principal  and  most  important  evidence,  ar- 
rested Foscarini.     After  a  few  private  interrogatories,  in 
which  the  single  denial  of  the  unhappy  prisoner  availed 
nothing  against  two  concurring  witnesses,  he  was  strangled 


*  The  title  of  CavaUere  was  usually  given  to  a  noble  on  his  return 
from  an  embassy.— Nani,  lib.  x.  p.  561.  He  wore  a  golden  star  embroi- 
dered on  his  robe. 


INNOCENCE    OP   FOSCARINI   ESTABLISHED.    273 

in  his  cell ;  and  on  the  next  day  his  body  was  suspended 
by  one  leg  from  a  gallows  in  the  Piazzetta  from  dawn  till 
sunset.  Whether  as  an  additional  mark  of  ignominy,  or  as 
an  act  of  grace  in  order  that  he  might  be  less  easily  recog- 
nised, his  features  were  previously  disfigured  by  being 
bruised  on  the  pavement. 

Success  in  this  first  villanous  attempt  increased  the 
daring  and  the  avidity  of  the  informers,  and  a  second  noble 
was  soon  afterward  accused  of  a  similar  crime.  One  of 
the  inquisitors,  however,  more  prudent  or  less  obdurate 
than  his  coadjutors,  now  insisted  on  the  examination  of  the 
Spanish  secretary,  who  peremptorily  disavowed  all  know- 
ledge either  of  the  spies  or  of  the  denounced  senator. 
The  conviction  and  condemnation  of  the  informers  which 
followed  were  soon  publicly  known ;  and  the  family  of  the 
murdered  Foscarini,  still  bitterly  smarting  under  the  dis- 
grace which  not  only  affected  the  memory  of  the  dead, 
but,  according  to  the  rigorous  law  of  Venice,  prevented  his 
surviving  kindred  also  from  advancement  in  the  state,  peti- 
tioned that  the  criminals  might  be  examined  once  more 
touching  their  deceased  relative.  It  little  accorded  how- 
ever with  the  policy  of  the  Ten  to  run  the  hazard  of  reveal- 
ing their  incapacity  by  revising  a  former  sentence ;  and  the 
application  was  refused  under  a  pretext  that  the  false  wit- 
nesses, being  already  convicted,  were  legally  incompetent 
to  give  evidence.  Nevertheless,  before  the  execution  of 
the  malefactors  ample  and  satisfactory  confession  was  ob- 
tained from  them  through  a  priest,  and  was  published  by 
the  injured  family  ;  so  that  the  Ten,  no  longer  able  to  re- 
sist their  just  importunity,  issued  a  solemn  exculpatory 
decree  nearly  nine  months  after  the  punishment  of  Fosca- 
rini, declaring  that  his  innocence  had  been  revealed  by 
Divine  Providence  miraculously  and  through  methods  un- 
imaginable by  human  wisdom.  It  might  have  been  more 
accordant  with  truth  if  they  had  admitted  with  Bartolo, — 
a  distinguished  civilian,  who  earned  in  his  own  times  the 
honourable  titles  of  "  The  Star  and  Luminary  of  Law,  and 
the  Lantern  of  Equity,"  and  who  was  intimately  acquainted 
with  Venetian  jurisprudence,* — that  the  decisions  of  their 


*  ludieia  Venetorum  inter  casus  fortuitos  reputanda.     We  have 
chiefly  fpUowod  Sir  Henry  Wottoa  in  the  sad  story  of  Foscarini.     He 


274 


% 


THE    CORNAKI   AND   THE    ZENI. 


A.  D. 

1625. 


tribunals  were  to  be  reckoned  "  among  the  accidents  of  for- 
tune." 

The  sagacity  of  Wotton  foresaw  the  results  of  this  fatal 
exposure :  "  Surely,"  he  says,  "  in  three  hundred  and 
twelve  years  that  the  Decemviral  Tribunal  hath  stood, 
there  was  never  cast  upon  it  a  greater  blemish,  which  is 
likely  to  breed  no  good  consequence  upon  the  whole."  A 
private  quarrel  which  agitated  the  capital  a  few  years  af- 
terward contributed  to  realize  this  anticipation. 
The  family  of  Giovanni  Cornaro,  who  then  occupied 
the  throne,  had  long  cherished  an  hereditary  feud 
against  that  of  Zeno ;  the  head  of  which  noble  house, 
Renieri,  happened  to  fill  the  high  office  of  one  of  the  chiefs 
of  the  Ten.  Using  the  privileges  of  that  great  authority 
for  the  gratification  of  private  resentment,  Zeno  in  num- 
berless instances  offered  vexatious  opposition  to  the  doge, — 
seeking  to  deprive  one  of  his  sons  of  the  enjoyment  of  the 
purple  which  he  had  just  received  from  the  Vatican,  and 
to  exclude  another  from  his  seat  in  the  Great  Council.  In 
the  former  attempt  he  failed  ;  fur  although  the  law  forbade 
the  acceptance  from  Rome  of  a  benefice  by  any  son  of  a 
reigning  doge,  the  cardinal's  hat  did  not  appear  to  be  in- 
cluded under  that  desiornation  :  but  admittance  to  the  coun- 
cil  had  been  provided  for  no  more  than  two  sons  of  the 
prince,  and  Giorgio,  therefore,  as  the  third,  was  compelled 
to  abandon  a  privilege  afforded  him  only  by  courtesy. 
Fired  with  indignation  at  this  affront,  the  hot-blooded  youth 
waylaid  Zeno  with  bravoes  as  he  quitted  the  council-cham- 
ber of  the  Ten  at  night,*  and  left  him  for  dead  under  their 

professes  to  have  made  "  research  of  the  whole  proceeding,  that  his 
majesty,  to  whom  he  (Foscarini)  was  so  well  known,  may  have  a  more 
due  information  of  this  rare  and  unfortunate  example."  It  has  been 
said  that  the  sentence  of  this  miserable  victim  either  of  haste  or  of 
malice  was  a  voluntary  error, — his  crime  being  too  great  popularity  ; 
and  Wotton  certainly  speaks  of  some  probable  "mixture  of  private  pas- 
sion." Vittorio  Siri,  upon  whose  single  authority  we  should  by  no 
means  rely,  writes  disparagin«rly  of  Foscarini's  character ;  and  adds, 
that  his  fate  might  have  easily  been  anticipated  Mem.  recotid.  v.  380). 
Even  to  that  statement  also  Wotton  is  not  altogether  opposed  ;  "  perhaps 
some  light  humour  to  which  the  party  was  subject,  together  with  the 
taint  of  his  former  imprisonment  (an  illusion  which  we  are  unable  to 
explain),  might  precipitate  the  credulity  of  his  judges."— ilt/w.  Wottcnij 
p.  310. 

*  The  Collegia  and  the  Ten  held  their  sittings  at  all  hotirs  indiscrimi- 
nately, as  occasion  required.    Li  the  Grand  Council  the  introduction  of 


DEMUR   ON   RE-ELECTION   OF   THE   TEN.     275 

stilettoes.  The  wounded  man  however  recovered,  the  at- 
tempted assassination  was  traced  to  its  contriver,  and  his 
punishment  was  exile  for  life  and  the  forfeiture  of  all  privi- 
leges of  nobility, — an  inscription  also,  perpetuating  the 
memory  of  his  crime,  was  fixed  on  the  spot  of  its  commis- 
sion. Not  content  with  this  signal  triumph,  Zeno  persisted 
in  displaying  yet  more  than  former  virulence  towards  his 
rivals  ;  and  he  inveighed  even  against  a  humane  provision 
of  the  senate,  permitting  the  doge  to  issue  the  decree  which 
banished  his  son  unaccompanied  by  the  usual  formality  of 
his  own  superscription.  Angry  harangues  in  the  Collegia 
and  in  the  council  won  partisans  to  either  side,  and  the 
whole  body  of  patricians  arrayed  themselves  in  one  or  other 
of  the  factions ;  and  in  the  end,  when  Zeno  prepared  to 
submit  a  revision  of  the  ducal  oath  to  the  Great  Council, 
and  the  Ten  forbade  the  attempt,  he  disobeyed  their  in- 
junction, provoked  a  tumultuous  debate,  at  which  many  of 
the  nobles  attended  with  arms,*  and  so  far  interrupted  by 
frequent  and  irregular  clamours  a  temperate  explanation 
which  the  doge  was  offering,  that  it  became  necessary  to 
adjourn  the  sitting.  The  inquisitors  visited  this  unwonted 
scandal  with  proportionate  severity,  and  Zeno,  who  had 
once  before  been  banished,  was  condemned  to  a  second 
exile. 

As  the  next  stated  season  for  the  renewal  of  the  Ten 
approached,  this  fresh  undue  exercise  of  power,  as  it  was 
termed,  was  bitterly  remembered  by  Zeno's  numerous 
friends  ;  and  on  proceeding  to  ballot  not  one  of  the  candi- 
dates proposed  obtained  siifficient  votes  to  render  his  elec- 
tion legal.  The  Ten  were  thus  virtually  extinguished. 
But  so  violent  a  change  in  their  constitution  justly  alarmed 
those  who  understood  and  appreciated  the  infinite  value  of 
stability  in  government,  who  deprecated  any  reform,  even 
of  abuses,  unless  it  were  gradually  introduced,  and  who 
foresaw  in  this  first  specious  amendment  a  dreary  per- 
spective of  boundless  future  revolutions.!    By  the  exertions 

lights  was  forbidden,  so  that  the  sittings  of  that  body  always  terminated 
with  sunset. 

*  In  general  no  person  was  allowed  to  enter  the  council-chamber  with 
any  weapon  ;  but  adjoining  it  was  a  well-stored  armoury  which  the  no- 
bles might  employ  in  case  of  necessity. 

t  "  Da'  piii  provetii  Cittadini  s'  apprendevano  1  danni  dellanovitA  sem- 
premai  pregiuditiale,  quando  sotto  titolo  di  Riforma  la  mutatione  s'  itt 


/i 


W 


276 


DEBATES    ON   THE    TEN. 


of  this  less  extreme  party  a  committee  was  appointed  to 
review  the  functions  of  the  obnoxious  tribunal ;  and  when 
they  recommended  that  the  Ten  should  no  longer  be  per- 
mitted to  interfere  with  the  decrees  of  the  Great  Council, 
they  at  the  same  time  declared  that  it  was  imperatively 
necessary  for  the  safety  of  a  state  governed  by  an  aristoc- 
racy, that  some  one  supreme  power  should  control  the 
otherwise  excessive  license  of  its  numerous  rulers,  and 
that  the  Council  of  Ten  performed  that  duty  most  satis- 
factorily. Such  a  report  was  little  calculated  to  satisfy  a 
body  already  encouraging  hopes  that  a  tribunal  which  had 
long  and  heavily  pressed  upon  their  order  was  about  to  be 
abolished  for  ever,  and  stormy  debates  accordingly  ensued. 
On  the  first  day. the  council  adjourned  without  coming  to  a 
decision  ;  on  the  second,  a  vehement  invective  by  a  popular 
orator  so  far  carried  away  the  hearers  that  an  annulment 
of  Zeno's  sentence  was  proposed  by  acclamation,  and  car- 
ried by  an  overwhelming  majority.  The  recommendation 
of  the  committee  would  afterward  have  inevitably  been 
rejected  but  for  the  calm  eloquence  of  Batista  Nani,  still 
preserved  to  us  in  the  pages  of  his  nephew  and  namesake 
the  historian.  Never  was  a  greater  triumph  won  over 
personal  feeling  and  private  inclination  than  that  which 
Kani  here  achieved.  When  he  sat  down,  the  resolutions 
of  the  committee  were  accepted  and  confirmed,  their  advo- 
cate himself  was  elected  a  chief  of  the  Ten,  and  in  the  in- 
strument which  registered  this  dignity  especially  honourable 
mention  was  introduced  of  the  great  service  which  he  had 
rendered  to  his  country  by  preserving  her  from  anarchy. 
Not  long  afterward  also,  so  far  as  the  patricians  were 
concerned,  the  power  of  the  Ten  was  increased ;  and  in 
all  criminal  cases  the  members  of  the  Grand  Council  were 
subjected  to  the  cognizance  of  the  smaller  tribunal,  instead 
of  being,  as  hitherto,  amenable,  in  common  with  the  rest  of 
their  fellow-citizens,  to  the  jurisdiction  of  the  Forty. 
Grievous  indeed  was  the  yoke  which  the  nobles  thus  con- 
sented to  retain ;  but  upon  submission  to  that  yoke  de- 
pended the  whole  framework  which  bound  together  their 
sovereignty.     The  love  of  power  prevailed,  and  they  were 

trade ;  tarlo  pessimo,  che  se  non  b'  estingue  da  prima,  guasta  presto  e 
corrode  i  meglio  assodati  Governi." — Nani,  vii.  p.  400. 


Evelyn's  picture  of  Venetian  manners.  277 

content  to  purchase  entire  despotism  over  others  by  the 
partial  surrender  of  their  own  freedom. 

Of  the  state  of  Venetian  manners  about  the  period  to 
which  we  are  now  advancing,  a  few  lively  particulars  have 
been  transmitted  to  us  by  one  of  the  most  accomplished 
and  observant  of  contemporary  English  travellers.  Evelyn 
arrived  at  Venice  in  1645,  in  sufficient  time  to  witness  the 
pomp  of  the  marriage  of  the  Adriatic  :  the  gondolas  ap- 
peared to  him  as  so  many  water-coaches  ;*  the.  Canale 
Grande^  from  the  throng  of  nobles  who  took  the  air  upon 
it,  as  resembling  Hyde  Park  :  the  Exchange  (le  fabhriche 
vecchie  di  Rialto)  "  as  nothing  so  magnificent  as  our  own  ;" 
but  of  the  street  which  led  from  it  to  St.  Mark's  he 
speaks  with  rapture.  "  Hence  I  passed  through  the  Mer- 
ceria,  one  of  the  most  delicious  streets  in  the  world  for  the 
sweetnesse  of  it,  and  is  all  the  way  on  both  sides  tapistred, 
as  it  were,  with  cloth  of  gold,  rich  damasks  and  other  silks, 
which  the  shops  expose  and  hang  before  their  houses  from 
the  first  fioore,  and  with  that  variety  that,  for  neere  halfe 
the  yeare  spent  chiefly  in  this  citty,  I  hardly  remember  to 
have  scene  the  same  piece  twice  exposed  ;  to  this  add  the 
perfumes,  apothecaries'  shops,  and  innumerable  cages  of 
nightingales  which  they  keepe,  that  entertaine  you  with 
their  melody  from  shop  to  shop,  so  that  shutting  your  eyes 
you  would  imagine  yourselfe  in  the  country,  when  indeede 
you  are  in  the  middle  of  the  sea.  It  is  almost  as  silent 
as  the  middle  of  a  field,  there  being  neither  rattling  of 
coaches  nor  trampling  of  horses.  This  streete,  paved  with 
brick,  and  exceedingly  cleane,  brought  us  through  an  arch, 
into  the  famous  piazza  of  St.  Marc."t 

Evelyn's  attention,  however,  appears  to  have  been  chiefly 
attracted  by  the  singularity  of  costume.  "  It  was  now  As- 
cension weeke,  and  the  greate  mart  or  faire  of  the  whole 
yeare  was  kept,  every  body  at  liberty  and  joUie.  The  no- 
blemen stalking  with  their  ladies  on  choppijics ;  these  are 

*  Evelyn  some  years  afterward  likewise,  in  1662,  si)eak8  of'gondolat 
with  no  great  respect :  "  I  saw  the  rich  gondola  sent  to  his  majesty  by 
the  state  of  Venice,  but  it  was  not  comparable  for  swiftness  to' our 
common  wherries,  though  rowed  by  Venetians."— Memoir*,  ii.  191.  Co- 
ry at  (Crudities,  160)  has  given  a  bad  character  of  the  gondoliers  pl>ing  at 
the  Rialfo.  A  pleasant  deRcripiion  of  the  modern  gondola  may  be  found 
in  Mr.  Rose's  Letters,  i.  272.  j  « 

t  Memoirs,  ii.  313. 

Vol.  II. — A  a 


u 


278 


VENETIAN   COSTUME. 


high-heeleJ  shoes,  particularly  affected  by  these  proude 
dames,  or,  as  some  say,  invented  to  keepe  them  at  homo, 
it  being  very  difficult  to  walke  with  them  ;  whence  one 
being  asked  how  he  liked  the  Venetian  dames,  replied,  they 
were  mezzo  carne^  mezzo  ligyio,  half-flesh,  half-wood,  and 
he  would  have  none  of  them.  The  truth  is,  their  garb  is 
very  odd,  as  seeming  allwayes  in  masquerade  ;  their  other 
habits  also  totally  different  from  all  nations.  They  wearc 
very  long  crisped  haire,  of  severall  strakes  and  colours, 
which  they  make  so  by  a  wash,  dischevclling  it  on  the  brims 
of  a  broade  hat  that  has  no  crowne,  but  an  hole  to  put  out 
their  heads  by  ;  they  drie  them  in  the  sunn  as  one  may  see 
then;  at  their  windows.*  In  their  tire  they  set  silk  flowers 
and  sparkling  stones,  their  peticoates  coming  from  their 
very  arme-pits,  so  that  they  are  neere  three-quarters  and  an 
half  apron  ;  their  sleeves  are  made  exceedingly  wide,  under 
which  their  shift  sleeves  as  wide,  and  commonly  tucked  up 
to  the  shoulder,  shewing  their  naked  amies  through  false 
sleeves  of  tiffany,  girt  with  a  bracelet  or  two,  with  knots 
of  points  richly  tagged  about  their  shoulders  and  other 
places  of  their  body,  which  they  usually  cover  with  a  kind 
of  yellow  vaile  of  lawn  very  transparent.  Thus  attired, 
they  set  their  hands  on  the  heads  of  two  matron-like  ser- 
vants or  old  women,  to  support  them,  who  are  mumbling 
their  beades.  'Tis  ridiculous  to  see  how  these  ladies  crawle 
in  and  out  of  their  gondolas  by  reason  of  their  choppinesy 
and  what  dwarfs  they  appeare  when  taken  down  from  their 
wooden  scaffolds;  of  these  I  saw  thirty  near  together, 
stalking  halfe  as  high  againe  as  the  rest  of  the  world  ;  for 
courtezans  or  the  citizens  may  not  weare  choppi?teSj  but 
cover  their  bodies  and  faces  with  a  vaile  of  a  certaine  glitter- 
ing taffeta  or  lustree,  out  of  which  they  now  and  then  dart 
a  glaunce  of  their  eye,  the  whole  face  being  otherwise  en- 
tirely hid  with  it :  nor  may  the  common  misses  take  this 
habit,  but  go  abroad  barefac'd.  To  the  corners  of  these 
virgin-vailes  hang  broad  but  flat  tossells  of  curious  Point 
de  Vcnize.  The  married  women  go  in  black  vailes.  The 
Nobility  weare  the  same  colour,  but  of  fine  cloth  lin'd  with 
taffeta  in  summer,  with  fur  of  the  bellies  of  squirrels  in  the 

*  At  the  close  of  this  chapter  will  be  found  a  cut  from  Titian,  represent- 
ing a  Venetian  lady  under  this  operation— la  one  corner  stand  her  chop- 
pinea. 


ORIGIN  OF  THE  AVAR  OF  CANDIA. 


279 


/ 


winter,  which  all  put  on  at  a  certaine  day,  girt  with  a  girdle 
emboss'd  with  silver  ;  the  vest  not  much  difierent  from  what 
our  Bachelors  of  Arts  weare  in  Oxford,  with  a  hood  of 
cloth  made  like  a  sack  cast  over  their  left  shoulder,  and  a 
round  cloth  black  cap  fring'd  with  wool,  which  is  not  so 
comely  ;  they  also  weare  their  collar  open,  to  shew  the  dia- 
mond button  of  the  stock  of  their  shirt.  I  have  never  seene 
pearlc  for  colour  and  bignesse  comparable  to  what  the  ladys 
weare,  most  of  the  noble  families  being  very  rich  in  Jewells, 
especialy  pearles,  which  are  always  left  to  the  son  or  brother 
who  is  destined  to  marry,  which  the  eldest  seldome  do.  The 
doge's  vest  is  of  crimson  velvet,  the  procurator's,  &c.  of 
damasc  very  stately.  Nor  was  I  lesse  surprized  with  the 
strange  variety  of  the  severall  nations  seen  every  day  in  the 
streets  and  piazzas  ;  Jews,  Turks,  Armenians,  Persians, 
Moores,  Greeks,  Sclavonians,  some  with  their  targets  and 
boucklers,  and  all  in  their  native  fashions,  negotiating  in 
this  famous  emporium,  which  is  always  crowded  with  stran- 
gers."* 

During  Evelyn's  visit,  preparations  were  making  for 
another  celebrated  war  which  Venice  was  about  to  maintain 
against  the  Turks ;  and,  indeed,  a  voyage  which  he  medi- 
tated to  Jerusalem  was  prevented  in  consequence  of  the  ship 
already  engaged  by  him  being  pressed  for  the  carriage  of 
stores  to  Caiulia,  then  menaced  by  invasion.  Ibrahim,  the 
sultan  who  at  that  time  fdled  the  throne  of  Constantinople, 
is  chiefly  known  to  us  by  his  weakness  and  his  vices  ;t  but 
he  was  governed  by  an  enterprising  vizier,  Mohammed, 
pacha  of  Damascus,  who  eagerly  seized  an  occasion  prom- 
ising aggrandizement  to  the  Ottomans  at  the  expense  ^  ^^ 
of  Venice.  A  Turkish  vessel,  conveying  to  Mecca  jg^* 
one  of  the  sultanas  and  her  son  by  Ibrahim,t  named 

*  Evelyn,  ibid.  321.    Coryat  speaks  similarly  of  the  throng  in  tK 
Piazza  :  "  Here  you  may  both  see  all  manner  of  fashions  of  attyre,  anl 
heare  all  the  languages  of  Christendonie,  besides  those  that  are  spoken  by 
the  barbarous  Eihnickes."— rr«(i/f/fi.-,  171. 

t  "  Noil  possedeva  alcuna  delle  doti  che  passano  anche  tra  i  Barbari  per 
necessarie :  slolido  senza  lume,  fbrioso  senza  intervalli,  con  tal  mistura 
di  crudeltA  e  di  timore,  di  prodigalitA  e  d'  avaritia,  che  a'  suoi  medesimi 
pareva  un  composto  di  sensi,  di  costumi,  di  viiii  contiarii,  trailussidel 
Seraglio  dato  in  preda  alle  libidiiii  e  alle  delilie."— A'a»/,  part  ii.  lib.  i.  p.  34. 

i  Kor  various  statements  relative  to  the  parentage  ol  Othman,  see  Sir 
Paul  Rycaut  in  his  continuation  of  Knolles,  vol.  iii.  p.  57.  Diedo  alto- 
gether rejects  the  common  belief  that  it  was  a  sultana  who  was  cap- 
tured.—Tom.  iii.  lib.  V.  p.  12. 


280 


SURRENDER    OF   KHANIA. 


SALE    OF    VENETIAN   NOBILITY. 


281 


Othraan,  had  been  captured  by  some  Maltese  galleys,  which 
anchored  with  their  prize  in  the  first  instance  off  the  coast 
of  Candia.     Contrary  to  civilized  usages,  the  prisoners  were 
obstinately  detained  ;  the  mother  died  of  grief,  the  child  was 
baptized,  and  finally  became  a  Dominican,  under  the  name 
of-  Padre  Ottomano.     The  fury  of  Ibrahim  on  the  receipt 
of  this  intelligence  was  ungovernable,  and  he  breathed  ven- 
geance against  all  Christendom  indiscriminately.     It  was 
in  vain  that  the  ambassadors  of  France  and  England,  the 
resident  of  the  United  Provinces,  and  the  bailo  of  Venice, 
when  summoned  before  the  vizier,  protested  that  the  knights 
of  Malta  formed  an   independent  community,  for  whose 
acts  no  other  power  could  be  responsible  ;  they  were  men- 
aced with  committal  to  the  Seven  Towers  ;  and  Moham- 
med, profiting  by  the  accidental  use  which  had  been  made 
of  the  harbours  of  Candia,  directed  his  master's  views  of 
revenge  to  the  conquest  of  that  island.     Against  the  barren 
rock  of  Malta  the  Turks  before  now  had^  expended  their 
mightiest  efforts  in  vain  ;  but  the  rich  territory,  the  large 
population,    and    the   commercial   importance   of   Candia 
offered  a  prize  perhaps  of  easier  attainment,  certainly  of 
far  greater  value. 

To  write  the   history   ©f  the   arduous  struggle  which 
Venice  maintained  during  the  next  twenty-four°  years  for 
this  last  remnant  of  her  share  in  the  partition  of  the  Eastern 
empire,  would  far  exceed  our  limits,  and  might,  indeed,  de- 
mand a  separate  work  ;  so  that  we  must  content  ourselves 
A.  D.     ^^^^^  touching  rapidly  upon  a  few  of  its  more  promi- 
1645.    "^"^.  incidents.     In  the  first  campaign,  the  Turks 
obtained  possession  of  Khania,  after  a  siege  of  fifty- 
seven  days'  continuance,  and  the  loss  of  nearly  twenty  thou- 
sand men ;  and  thus  they  secured,  not  only  a  strong  mili- 
tary station,  but  a  port  also  for  the  disembarkation  of  rein- 
forcements.     So  important  did  this  loss  appear  to  the  sig- 
nory,  that  scarcely  any  sacrifice  was  deemed  too  great  for 
its  reparation,  and  recourse  was  had  to  extraordinary  mea- 
sures  for  increase  of  revenue.     Every  citizen  was  required 
to  deliver  for  coinage  at  the  mint  three-fourths  of  his  house- 
hold plate  ;  the  highest  ofllicial  dignities  were  once  a^ain 
exposed  to  auction  ;  and  even  nobility  itself  was  now*  for 
the  first  time,  made  venal.     The  unworthy  proposal  was 
met  with  becoming  indignation  by  some  of  the  more  ancient 


H 


k 


famines.     "  Sell  your  children,"  exclaimed  the  aged  Mi- 
chaelli,  "  but  never,  never  sell  your  nobility  !"*     An  anec- 
dote in  a  widely  different  spirit  is  told  by  Burnet.     "  When 
Correge  said  to  the  duke  that  he  was  afraid  to  ask  that 
honour  for  want  of  merit,  the  duke  asked  him  if  he  had  one 
hundred  thousand  ducats,  and  when  the  other  answered  that 
sum  was  ready,  the  duke  told  him  that  was  a  great  merit."t 
The  conditions  of  this  disgraceful  sale  announced  that  what- 
ever siibject  of  the  state  would  pay,  during  a  year,  the  ex- 
penses of  one  thousand  soldiers,  and  for  that  purpose  would 
deposite  sixty  thousand  ducats  in  the  treasury,  should  bo 
admitted  among  the  candidates  from  whom  five  nobles  were 
to  be  selected.     This  lottery  was  extended  to  foreigners  also 
on  a  small  additional  payment.     Legitimate  birth,  and  a 
satisfactory  proof  that  no  mechanical  employment  had  de- 
graded the  family  during  the  last  three  generations,  were 
the  sole  requisites  demanded  from  competitors  ;  but  Jews, 
Turks,  and  Saracens  were  peremptorily  excluded  ;  no  sum, 
however  great,  might  be  received  from  them  ;  no  service, 
however  valuable," might  be  pleaded  for  admission;    and 
any  individual  who   should  be  sufficiently  daring  to  pro- 
pose so  gross  an  abomination,  subjected  himself  to  perpetual 
banishment,  and  the  loss  of  his  whole  property.     In  the 
end,  eighty  new  patricians,  instead  of  five,  were  admitted 
by  purchase,  and  the  consequent  returns  to  the  treasury 
amounted  to  eight  million  ducats.     Other  unusual  measures 
were  demanded  by  the  greatness  of  the  occasion ;  and,  in 
opposition  to  a  state  maxim  which  had  been  most  rarely 
transgressed,  Francesco  Erizzo,  the  reigning  doge,  was 
called,  like  Enrico  Dandolo,  and  at  an  equally  advanced  age, 
to  assume  the  personal  command  of  an  expedition  for  the 
relief  of  Candia.     Estimating  his  physical  powers  beyond 
their  real  strength,  the  veteran  warrior  died  while  preparing 
for  his  important  charge. 

During  the  second  campaign,  a  singular  spectacle  was 
exhibited  in  the  Venetian  fleet ;  notwithstanding  ^  ^^ 
mutual  existing  differences,  both  France  and  Spain  ^Q^, 
supplied  reinforcements  ;  so  that  two  squadrons, 
which  elsewhere  would  have  met  in  hostile  guise,  were 
here  arrayed  under   a  confederate  flag.     The  assistance 

*  "  Vender  i  fipli,  ma  non  mai  vender  la  nobilitA  I" 
t  Letters,  p.  155.    Rouerdam,  1686. 
Aa2 


*       V t  _    _ 


7 

it 


283    DETHRONEMENT  AND  DEATH  OF  IBRAHIM. 

Which  Cardinal  Mazarin  thus  afforded  was  repaid  by  in- 
scnption  m  the  Golden  Book;  and  the  possessor  of  mo?e 
than  seventy  million  ducats  was,  perhaps,  but  little  flat- 
tered by  an  honour  which  the  disbursement  of  seventy 
thousand  might  have  purchased  in  the  common  market 
In  her  naval  operations,  Venice,  from  the  superior  ski  i 
of  her  manners,  was  eminently  successful  f  and  the 
^rf*  "^  ^'/'\'°.  en.^rfl^.*  both  his  civil  and  militar^ 
?    ?/u"^'''?^^^  ^^^  P^^P^^^y  of  Jiis  Capudan  Pach7 

plunged  a  dagger  into  the  heart  of  his  vizier  Mohammed 

t'  t  'k  flPT°''^"(  '^'  ^^^'  b^^^"««  the  blockade  of  the 
Turkish  fleet  retarded  the  movements  of  the  army.    Retimo 

viTrr;.^).'^  n.?^^  '^^^'  ^^'^  ^^"  th«"«^^J  inhabitants,' 
yielded  to  the  Ottomans ;  before  the  gates  of  Suda  the^^ 

piled  five  thousand  Christian  heads  in  pyramids  ;  and  they 

fskidTT^  '^f  '''^'  of  Candia,  the  metropolis  of  the 
island,  which  was  to  occupy  them  during  a  period  more 
than  double  the  term  of  the  resistance  of  Troy 

Before  the  close  of  this  year,  a  revolution  at  Constanti- 
nople  seemed  at  first  to  permit  hope  of  peace.  Theex. 
cesses  and  the  cruelty  of  IbrahimSoused  the  janizaries 
to  revolt,  and  a  comparatively  trifling  incident  completed 
the  tyrant's   destruction.     Not  satisfied  with  the   gUded 

ohS^'  Ti'^'  precious  tapestries  which  decorated  the 
chambers  of  his  palace,  under  the  influence  of  some  new 

ZTnfT''"'^u-  ^"^"7'  ^'  ^^'''^'^  the  scarcely^redibTe' 
sum  of  four  millions  of  gold  in  collecting  rare  and  costly 
furs,  especially  sables  ;t  and  the  extortion!  to  which  he  had 
recourse  for  the  gratification  of  this  expensive  folly  first 
awakened  deep  murmurs,  and  in  the  end  organized  a^  con 
spiracy  among  his  praetorians.  The  gates  of  the  seraX 
were  forced ;  and  the  insurgents,  rushing  ^n  called  S 
loud  cries  for  Ibrahim's  sol  M^hammfd  whom,  nt 
withstanding  his  tender  years,  they  destined  for  the  crown 

Jn.nn^'^'' '  "fT^  ""''^  '^^^  ^"^  terror,  seized  the  b^y 
unconscious  of  the  purpose  to  which  the  tumult  environinc; 

Ini;i;?xSroJl3SyX"""  '""  by  Voltaire  for  the 

of^h?U?se"suaViT  ^TZiS^^l^  T  ^'^^  ^^^^^-'  -« 
aphrodi8iacB.-Vol.xup  493  '^*'*'®'  ^^^^'"^ed  sables  to  be 


BRILLUNT  NAVAL  EXPLOIT. 


283 


P 


i 


\4 


him  was  directed,  and  would  have  despatched  him  with 
his  own  hand  but  for  the  intervention  of  the  women  of  the 
harem.  Mohammed,  who  had  not  yet  completed  his  sixth 
year,  still  in  tears  and  struggling  with  alarm,  was  borne 
off  by  the  janizaries,  placed  upon  the  throne,  and  in- 
vested with  the  symbols  of  empire,  while  his  wretched 
father  was  overpowered  and  strangled  in  an  adjoining 
apartment.  On  the  receipt  of  this  intelligence,  the  signory, 
imagining  that  a  change  of  rulers  might  produce  a  change 
of  counsels  also,  proposed  terms  of  peace  ;  these,  however, 
were  rejected  arrogantly,  and  not  without  ferocious  outrages 
upon  the  minister  of  the  republic.  His  first  dragoman  was 
put  to  death,  under  a  pretext  that  he  had  offered  bribes  to 
some  inferior  officers  of  the  divan  ;  and  the  bailo  himself, 
over  whom  similar  punishment  was  long  suspended,  was 
thought  happy  in  escaping  with  committal  to  the  Seven 
Towers. 

The  war,  therefore,  continued  to  rage  ;  and  on  almost 
every  occasion  during  its  protracted  course  in  which  the 
Turks  encountered  the  Venetians  by  sea,  they  were  signally 
discomfited  ;  many  remarkable  incidents  being  transmitted 
to  us  of  victory  obtained  against  most  disproportionately 
superior  forces.  In  the  engagement  which  we  have  before 
mentioned  as  costing  his  life  to  the  Capudan  Pacha,  and 
their  inheritance  to  his  heirs,  a  single  Venetian  ship, 
commanded  by  Tommaso  Morosini,  sustained  an  attack 
from  five-and-forty  galleys,  in  the  strait  of  Negropont. 
After  a  long  and  desperate  resistance,  in  which  Morosini 
himself  was  killed,  and  his  ship  boarded,  but  not  mastered, 
the  arrival  of  four  of  her  mates  put  to  flight  the  entire 
Turkish  fleet,  with  the  loss  of  their  commander,  of  many 
prisoners,  and  of  several  galleys  destroyed.  The  Darda- 
nelles were  frequently  blockaded,  and  when,  in  1649,  the 
Turkish  admiral,  commanding  eighty-three  ships,  sought, 
not  to  engage,  but  to  elude  a  squhdron  of  twenty  Venetians, 
under  Giacopo  Riva,  he  was  pursued  to  the  road  of  Foschia, 
not  far  north  from  Smyrna,  and  defeated  with  a  loss,  most 
probably  exaggerated  by  the  historians  of  the  republic, 
but  which,  nevertheless,  must  have  been  laru^e  indeed  to 
permit  so  great  exaggeration  as  they  have  ventured  to 
employ.  We  are  told  that  most  of  the  Ottoman  ships 
were  burned  or  driven  on  shore,  that  one  thousand  five 


284 


NAVAL  EXPLOITS. 


hundred  Christian  slaves  were  released,  and  seven  thousand 

I'il   r    ^"«1'  'V'T  'i  '^'  conquerors  meanwhile  not 
exceeding  fifteen  dead  and  ninety  wounded  '* 

Vpn?.!  i"""^  fZ  ^Ai\«P'^»<JiJ  ^i^tory,  Riva  despatched  to 
Venice  a  single  British  ship,  serving  under  his  flaa  •  her 
name  was  the  Elizabeth  Mary,  her  commander  Captain 
Thomas  Middleton;  and  it  is  with  peculiar  pleasureShat 
an  Englishman  will  read  a  special  tribute  of  praise  oilered 
to  the  pllnntry  of  one  of  his  own  countrymen.     Pursued 
hy  tlnrty  Turkish  sail,   this  brave   sailor,  displaying  the 
standard  of  St.  Mark,  beat  off  his  assailants  so  vigorously 
that  they  were  driven  with  great  loss  to  refit  in  MUylcne  • 
and  he  then  proceeded  with  his  own  ship  to  Venice  no[ 
only  m   safety  but  in  triumph.f     A  similar  instan c'e  of 
English  bravery  is  related  by  Diedo.     He  names  the  ship 
n  Soccorso,  v^'hich  we  are  unable  to  accommodate  to  our 
received  marine  nomenclature.   She  defended  herself,  sinalv 
against  the  whole  Turkish  fleet,  at  the  mouth  of  the  Danlv 
nelles   and  killed  four  hundred  infidels  before  she  was  h    f 
burned  and  captured.J 

The  coast  of  Paros  was  the  next  scene  of  naval  conflict, 
where  victory  was  won  before  the  main  Venetian 
1651.    ^f^  could  be  brought  into  action,  by  two  of  their 
advanced  ships,  commanded  by  the  brothers  Monce- 
nighi ;  a  name  continually  illustrious  in  the  annals  of  this 
A.  D.      ;y^^-  ^  ^/^<^«  --i^-'in  also  were  the  Dardanelles  bloodily 
1654^    disputed  ;  m  the  first  instance  by  eight  Venetians, 
attacked  by  thirty-two  sail  from  th?  Archinelairo 
and  by  seventy-five  from   Constantinople.     Incredil)le\'' 
^  may  appear,  this  combat  was  equally  maintain  d     and 
himsrVlT""'"  f  the  republic'not  only  extricated 
ifX  wfn    h^    svvarms  by  which  he  was  surrounded,  but 
If  the  wind  had  permitted  would  have  arrain  joined  bkttle 

"tlf;  r "Z;    '"  ^"?^^-  -^i-  f-g^^t  on  tie  sle  spo 
hJnrl  vr   ^^"T'"^'  Lazaro,  one  of  the  two  Monceniihi 

wi[h  fonf  "^•'?"^'^  ''/"^"^'  ^^^'-^^"^^  ^  ^««^P'«te  victory 
with  forty  sai    opposed  to  one  hundred  ;  and  in  1656  the 

S%reTr^'"%'V"'^'  «"   ^^^  Aa^^^a, 'cove  ed 
with  fresh  wounds,  and  honourably  disfigured  by  the  loss 

*  Nani,  part  ii.  lib.  v.  p.  244 

t  Idern.  ibid.  p.  264. 

t  Tom.  iii,  lib.  viL  p.  212. 


THE  MONCENIOHI. 


285 


A.  D. 


) 


of  an  eye,  to  announce  the  total  destruction  of  eighty-four 
Turkish  vessels,  in  the  narrowest  part  of  their  own  strait, 
under  the  protection  of  numerous  batteries  raised  on  either 
shore.  Marcello,  the  Venetian  commander-in-chief,  was 
killed  during  this  action,  and  the  popular  voice  enthusiasti- 
cally hailed  Moncenigo  as  his  successor.  The  senate, 
perhaps  jealous  of  dictation,  appointed  a  different  officer ; 
but  a  vote  of  the  Great  Council  frustrated  the  intrigue,  and 
Lazaro  Moncenigo  returned  to  the  JSgean  to  immortalize 
himself  by  another  triumph,  and  a  glorious  death.  After 
capturing  or  destroying  twenty  Turkish  galleys  in  an 
attempt  to  force  the  Dardanelles,  he  was  separated 
from  his  enemy  by  a  severe  gale,  which  lasted  during  ^^  ^j' 
two  successive  days  ;  on  the  third  morning,  when  jggy* 
he  renewed  the  combat,  his  ship  caught  fire,  and 
the  fall  of  a  mast  upon  his  head  deprived  him  of  life.  Five 
hundred  men  perished  in  the  explosion  which  followed  ; 
but  the  Venetians  had  the  melancholy  satisfaction  of  res- 
cuing from  the  flames  their  standard  and  the  body  of  their 
admiral.  "  I  know  not,  however,"  is  the  just  remark  of  Nani, 
"  whether  the  sea  might  not  have  been  the  fittest  grave  for 
one  who  sacrificed  his  life  upon  that  element  for  the  prize 
of  glory !" 

During  these  naval  events,  which,  for  the  sake  of  greater 
perspicuity,  we  have  thrown  together  into  a  connected 
series,  the  land  operations  against  the  city  of  Candia  had 
been  tardily  progressive.  In  soliciting  aid  among  the 
chief  European  powers,  Venice  received  assurances  of 
important  assistance  from  the  Protector  Cromwell,  at  that 
time  wielding  the  most  formidable  maritime  armament  in  the 
world.*  He  promised  them  help  when  a  squadron  which 
he  was  about  to  despatch  to  the  Mediterranean  for  the 
punishment  of  the  corsairs  should  reach*  its  destination  ; 
a  promise  which,  as  it  would  have  injured  his  oriental 
commerce,  the  wily  dissembler  was  far  too  politic  to  fulfil. 
More  than  words,  however,  were   obtained   from  ^^ 

Louis  XIV.  ;  and  four  thousand  of  the  choicest     iggn' 
French   infantry   and  two  hundred  cavalry    were 
placed  at  the  disposal  of  Francesco  Morosini,  now  for  a 
second  time  during  this  war  generalissimo  of  the  republic. 

*  "  Che  con  cento  quaranta  navi  armate  dominava  il  mare." — Nani^ 
r?t  il.  lib.  vi,  p.  830. 


286 


RECONCILIATION  WITH  SAVOY. 


SIEGE    OF    CANDIA. 


287 


That  force   was  wasted  in  desultory  operations;    fifteen 
hundred  men  perished  by  the    sword,    the  remainder   by 
disease ;   and  the  signory,  disappointed  in  their  sanguine 
hope  of  success,  recalled  Morosini,  and  subjected  him  to 
prosecution.     He  had  the  rare  fortune  of  being  acquitted 
by  a  Venetian  tribunal,  and,  ere  long,  of  resuming  a  career 
which  was  finally  to  lead  him  to  the  very  summit  of  glory. 
Aid,  ultimately   more  useful  than   that  of  France  had 
proved,  was  supplied  by  a  reconciliation  with  the  court 
of  Savoy,  between  which  and  Venice  all  intercourse  had 
been    suspended   during   thirty   years.     A  former   prince 
ot  that  house,  after  intermarriage  with  the  last  heiress 
of  the  Lusignani,  had  been  chased  from  the  throne  of 
Cyprus  by  the  Venetians,  who  in  their  turn   also   were 
despoiled  of  it  by  the  Turks.     The  republic,  after  her  loss, 
wisely  abstained  from  the   empty  assumption   of  a   title 
which  she  was  no  longer  able  to  support  by  arms ;  but  it 
became  a  point  of  honour  that  it  should  not  be  borne  by 
another ;    and  accordingly,  when  the   reigning   Duke   of 
Savoy  subscribed  himself  King  of  Cyprus  and  Jerusalem, 
the  signory  indignantly  withdrew  their   ambassador  from 
his  court.     "  We  wish  to  heaven,"  was  the  quiet  sarcasm 
ot  that  minister  to  the  duke,  on  his  audience  of  leave, 
"that    Cyprus    really   belonged    to   you,   and  not   to   the 
1  urks  .       On  a  new  accession,  the  dispute  was  compro- 
mised by  an  evasion  not  less  silly  than  the  oricrinal  claim  • 
and  the  duke  forbore  using  the  offensive  title  when  address- 
ing the  signory,  although  he  assumed  it  in  his  communica- 
tions with  every  other  power.*      But  the  necessities  of  the 
republic  easily  levelled  any  difficulty  which  iniaht  obstruct 
an  accommodation  upon  which  depended  a  supply  of  two 
picked  regiments  under  the  Marquis  Villa,  one  of  the  ablest 
generals  of  his  time.     Errors  similar  to  those  which  had 
before  rendered  the  French  unavailable  were,   unhappily 
repeated  with  regard  to  this  force  also  :   it  was  broken  in 

fitvlel''"  -  Th.°^n?^  a  monarchy,  was  naturally  jealous  of  diplomatic 
stjles.  "J  he  Doge  of  Venice,  who  acknovvle.Jges  no  superior,  uses 
rs^hJ^rT^;/^'"?^'"  P«»^"';i»,««)  but  only  alte^zza  or  celsi,u)lo?^l 
l-l.  i  '  ^'^^'^  '■[  "!'.'">'''•■  Works,  iii.  224.)  As  if  in  burlesque  of  this 
ast.diousness,  the  little  republic  of  San  Marino,  comprising  a  popu- 
lation m  all  not  exceeding  seven  thousand  souls,  used  to  address  Venice 
as  7iosira  carnsima  sorclla.  ""^cas  venue 


detail ;  nor  did  it  become  of  effective  use  till,  after  suffering 
great  loss,  its  remnant  was  concentrated  within  the  walls 
of  Candia.  Long  as  that  city  had  been  invested,  the  siege 
can  scarcely  be  said  to  have  been  pressed  with  suflScient 
vigour  to  promise  conquest  till  the  spring  of  1667  ;  when 
the  grand-vizier  Kieuperegli  opened  his  batteries,  having 
sat  down  under  the  ramparts  in  person,  at  the  head  of 
seventy  thousand  men,  at  the  commencement  of  the  pre- 
ceding winter. 

The  chief  command  of  the  Venetians  was  now  for  a 
third  time  intrusted  to  Frajjcesco  Morosini ;  he  was  sup- 
ported by  numerous  skilful  engineers,  his  garrison     ^   ^ 
mustered  about  nine  thousand  men,  and  his  fortifica-    ^i^T. 
tions  were  strong  and  in  good  repair.     One  side  of 
the  city,  the  form  of  which  was  nearly  triangular,  resting 
upon  the  sea,  was  thus  open  for  supplies  poured  in  from 
Venice  with  unsparing  cost :  for  not   only  munitions  of 
war,  but  almost  every  necessary  of  life,  even  biscuit  and 
fuel,  was  despatched  from  the  Lagunc.     Towards  the  land, 
the  approaches  were  defended  by  a  line  of  curtain  three 
miles  in  circuit,  flanked  by  seven  bastions,  and  mounting 
four  hundred  pieces  of  artillery.     The  ditches  were  deep 
and  wide,  and  every  outwork  had  been  diligently  excavated 
with  mines,  yawning  secretly,  like  so  many  hidden  graves, 
for  the  countless  numbers   who  were  to  perish  in  their 
abysses.     The  conduct  of  these  subterraneous  works,  in- 
deed, fonned  at  that  time  the  chief  secret  of  military  art  in 
sieges  ;  and  the  scene  of  war,  as  Rycaut,  the  continuator  of 
Kn'oUes,  expresses  himself,  "  seemed  to  be  transferred  ad 
inferos.''''     An  English  writer,  who  visited  the  neighbour- 
hood of  Candia  within  a  very  few  years  after  this  siege, 
appears  to  have  listened  with  open  ears  to  some  very  extra- 
ordinary narrations  respecting  it.     "  Another  invention," 
says  the  excellent  Bernard  Randolph,  "  the  Venetians  had 
to  fish  up  the  Turkes,  when  they  attempted  to  undermine 
the  walls.     They  had  hooks  made  in  the  forme  of  a  boat's 
grapling,  the  point  sharp,  fastn'd  to  a  rope,  and  four  or  five 
feet  of  chain  at  the  end.     These  hooks  they  often  cast  over 
the  wall  amongst  the  Turkes  ;  and  seldome  failed  to  bring 
up  a  Turk,  some  fastn'd  by  the  clothes,  others  by  the  body. 
I  have  heard  some  of  the  officers  say  they  have  taken  sev- 
eral in  a  night ;  for  when  the  hook  was  fa£tn'd,  they  gave 


288 


SIEGE  OF  CANDIA. 


SORTIE  OF  THE  FRENCH. 


289 


them  not  time  to  unhook  themselves,  but  had  them  over  the 
wall.     And  many  a  Turk  have  the  commmi  soldiers  eaten."* 
But  it  would  be  tedious  if  vfe  were  to  attempt  to  recite 
"  the  various  assaults  and  valiant  sallies,  the  traverses  ex- 
traordinary, the  rencounters  bloody,  the  resistance  viaor- 
ous,"  which  the  same  writer  assures  us  were  more  than 
were  ever  known  or  recorded  in  any  siege  before.     It  may 
suffice  to  say  that  from  the  opening  of  the  trenches  till  the 
Turks  retired  to  cantonments  in  this  year,  a  period  not  ex- 
ceeding six  months,  no  less  than  seventeen  sorties  and 
thirty-two    assaults  were    attempted ;    six   hundred   and 
eighteen  mines  were  sprung  oh  one  side  or  the  other ;  the 
loss  of  the  garrison  amounted  to  eighty  officers  and  three 
thousand  two  hundred  men,  and  that  of  the  Turks  to  more 
than  twenty  thousand.     One  of  the  mines  is  said  to  have 
reqi'ired  eighteen  thousand  pounds  of  powder,  and  to  have 
blown  mto  the  air,  with  destruction  either  of  life  or  limbs 
one  thousand  victims.  * 

The  Marquis  Villa,  who  had  most  bravely  seconded  Mo- 
rosnii  in  command,  was   recalled  by  the  Duke  of 
Savoy  in  the  following  spring,  when  the  garrison  was     *^'  °* 
strongly  reinforced  by  three  thousand  Imperialists.    ^^^^• 
The  chief  work  undertaken  by  the  Turks  during  the  sum- 
mer was  the  construction  of  an  enormous  mole  in  the  port, 
by  means,  of  which  they  commanded  the  weakest  part  of 
the  fortifications,   and   materially  annoyed   the   garrison. 
They  estabUshed  themselves  also  on  the  site  of  a  ruined 
bastion,  from  which  no  efforts  of  the  besieged  could  dislodge 
them.     The  year  was  closed  by  an  enterprise  among  the 
most  remarkable  in  modern  history ;  rash,  headlong,  gen- 
erous, dazzling,  useless,  and  inconclusive  as  any  of  those 
which  belong  to  more  chivalrous  and  romantic  ages. 

The  long  duration  of  the  war  of  Candia,  and  the  recent 
great  efforts  both  of  the  garrison  and  of  the  besiegers,  had 
naturally  arrested  the  regard  and  fired  the  imagination  of 
all  Europe  ;  and  some  youthful  nobles  of  France,  passion- 
ately enamoured  of  glory,  and  easily  kindling  a  fancied  zeal 
for  religion  also,  banded  together,  as  for  a  new  crusade,  to 
combat  the  infidels.  Six  hundred  volunteers,  all  of  gentle 
blood,  many  of  them  scions  of  the  most  ancient  houses 

♦PresemStateoffhelslandsin  the  Archipelago,  by  B  R  who  resided 
in  those  parts  from  1671  to  1679.  »«  ,  "J  o.  «.  wno  residea 


which  France  could  boast,  enrolling  themselves  under  the 
command  of  the  Duke  de  la  FueilJiide  and  the  banner  of 
the  Grand-master  of  Malta,  embarked  from  the  coast  of 
Provence,  and  arrived  in  Candia  towards  the  end  of  No- 
vember. Louis  XIV.  added  his  own  name  to  the  brilliant 
list,  and  commuted  his  personal  service  for  a  contribution 
of  forty  thousand  golden  ducats.*  Morosini  immediately 
employed  them  in  defence  of  one  of  his  most  advanced  out- 
works ;  a  post  the  danger  of  which  might  have  amply  sat- 
isfied a  thirst  for  honour  in  less  ardent  and  restless  spirits. 
But  it  was  not  to  await  attack  that  these  lion-hearted 
youths  had  traversed  the  Mediterranean  ;  and  burning  for 
action,  and  viewing  war  chiefly  as  a  pastime,  they  endea- 
voured to  create  opportunities  for  combat  when  these  failed 
to  offer  themselves  spontaneously.  Almost  daily,  therefore, 
some  champion  would  leap  the  palisades,  and  rushing  singly 
on  the  enemies'  lines,  would  either  sacrifice  his  own  life  in 
an  idle  bravado,  or  bring  back  a  prisoner  to  encumber  the 
garrison.  So  thinned  were  their  ranks  by  these  fruitless 
rencounters,  that  their  leader,  fearful  lest  his  numbers  might 
at  length  become  too  far  diminished  to  peniiit  such  an  ex- 
hibition of  prowess  as  he  coveted,  eagerly  conjured  the 
generalissimo  to  attempt  a  general  sortie  ;  an  operation 
which,  according  to  the  sanguine  expressions  of  the  volun- 
teers themselves,  could  not  do  less  than  compel  the  enemy 
to  raise  the  siege. 

It  was  in  vain  that  Morosini  endeavoured  to  temper  the 
rash  fervour  of  his  indiscreet  allies,  by  showing  that  his 
force  was  insufficient  cither  to  support  their  design  in  the 
first  instance,  or,  even  if  they  were  successful,  to  maintain 
any  ground  which  they  might  win.  The  French  continued 
obstinate  in  their  purpose  ;  and  the  IGth  of  December 
being  fixed  upon  for  their  enterprise,  the  preceding  evening 
was  employed,  as  we  are  told,  "  in  making  clean  con- 
sciences."! Two  hours  before  daybreak,  the  volunteers, 
accompanied  by  one  hundred  Venetians,  and  amounting 
altogether  to  no  more  than  four  hundred  and  fifty  men,  de- 

*  Palatius,  Fasti  Ducalcs,  .?00. 

t  " Charun  emnloya la  veilie A inetlre ordre  tout  debon a  sa  conscience." 
—Journal  de  i'  Expedition  de  M.  de  la,  Fueiliade  par  un  Volontaire.  Ly- 
ons, 1669. 

Vol.  IT.—B  b 


VX 


)k 


*f 


290 


SORTIE  OF  THE  FRENCH, 


PYRAMIDS  OF  HEADS. 


291 


scended  from  the  rampart  to  the  fausse-braye  ;*  not  by  <me 
of  the  gates,  nor  even  by  a  postern,  for  those  entrances  if 
was  considered  hazardous  to  open;  but  by  a  breach  pre- 
senting an  aperture  so  scanty  that  not  more  than  a  single 
file  could  pass  abreast.     For  the  sake  of  moving  over  the 
difficult  and  intersected  ground  with  greater  freedom,  the 
French  had  disencumbered  themselves  from  their  armour  ; 
and  the  few  who  retained  their  morions  and  scull-caps  speed- 
ily threw  aside  even  those  defences.     Each  of  the  cavaliers 
was  accompanied  by  a  page  armed  with  a  brace  of  pistols, 
and  with  a  spontoon  in  his  hand  ;  for  swords  were  seldom 
employed  against  the  Turks,  who,  notwithstandino-  their 
own  superior  adroitness  in  the  exercise  of  musketryt  could 
rarely  be  persuaded  to  stand  an  encounter  v^^ith  firearms. 
Crouching  down  on  the  ground,  and  awaiting  a  sianal  foi 
advance,  this  brave  company  was  thrown  into  slighl  confu- 
sion by  an  unexpected  cannonade  which  opened  from  the 
batteries  of  the  enemy,  treacherously  apprized  of  their  de- 
sign.     Not  a  moment  further  was   delayed.     Fueillade, 
armed  only  with  a  whip,  rushed  forward  ;  and  by  his  side' 
and  sometimes  even  before  him,  strode  a  Capucin,  regard- 
less of  the  bul/ets  which  plunged  around,  displaying  a  lifted 
crucifix,  and  animating  the  combatants  by  his  impassioned 
voice  and  gestures.     The  trenches  were  guarded  by  two 
thousand  six  hundred  Turks,  of  whom  more  than  half  were 
slam  and  the  rest  put  to  flight ;  so  that  after  two  hours' 
contest  the  French  remained  in  possession  of  seven  redoubts 
But  however  gallantly  those  works  had  been  stormed,  it 
was  not  possible  that  they  should  be  long  occupied.     The 
fugitives  had  already  rallied,  and  even  after  their  great  loss 
were  nearly  thrice  the  number  of  those  before  whom  they 
had  given  way  ;  the  camp  was  pouring  out  its  hosts  in  their 
support ;  and  the  conquerors  swept  away  by  a  ceaseless 
cannonade,  and  pressed  on  each  flank  and  in  front  by  over- 
whelming battalions,  now  hoped  for  no  other  gain  from  their 
barreji  victory  beyond  retirement  within  the  walls  which 
they  had  recently  been  so  impatient  to  quit.     So  blind,  how- 
ever, was  the  zeal  of  the  Capucin,  that  he  continued  te 
snout  vociferously  for  advance  long  after  orders  had  been 

dice's  whSwt".''^''  ^'^''""^^  '*'Jr*«'^  '"  ""^«^"  fortification,  at  the 


given  for  retreat ;  and  some  gentle  violence  became  neces- 
sary to  restrain  his  mischievous  enthusiasm.  An  eyewit- 
ness tells  us,  that  in  spite  of  the  crucifix  which  he  bran- 
dished, his  unseasonable  ardour  provoked  M.  de  la  Fueil- 
lade to  express  himself  with  some  little  asperity  ;  and  if  we 
do  not  greatly  mistake  the  sly  implication  which  the  writer 
intends  to  convey,  the  angry  duke  swore  roundly  against 
the  energetic  friar.*  Under  cover  of  the  guns  from  the 
ramparts,  the  remnant  of  this  little  band  of  heroes  at  length 
gained  the  city,  re-entering  by  the  same  narrow  passage 
through  which  they  had  before  issued  ;  the  duke  himself, 
wounded  in  three  places,  being  the  last  man  who  quitted 
the  ditch.  One  hundred  and  twenty  of  their  number  were 
left  killed  or  wounded  in  the  trenches  ;  and  all  of  these 
underwent  the  same  ultimate  fate,  their  heads  being  mounted 
on  pikes  and  exhibited  in  scorn  to  the  garrison.  The 
delicacy  of  complexion  and  the  profusion  of  light  bair 
which  distinguished  the  Marquis  of  Douradout,  one  of  the 
slain,  rendered  him  a  particular  object  of  admiration  to  the 
grand-vizier.  On  the  evening  before  the  sortie,  the  care- 
less and  unapprehensive  youth  had  tied  up  those  flowing 
locks  with  unusual  care,  in  order  that  they  might  not  in- 
commode him  in  the  day  of  battle ;  and  Kiuperegli,  struck 
by  his  beauty,  even  in  the  grimness  of  death,  set  apart  the 
head  for  several  days  for  the  special  inspection  of  his 
friends  ;  and  then  crowned  with  it  the  ghastly  pyramid 
which  he  erected  from  those  of  its  comrades.t  No  small 
alarm  had  been  excited  by  a  similar  barbarous  trophy  during 
an  earlier  part  of  this  siege,  when  it  was  confidently  re- 
ported that  one  of  the  Christian  heads  both  moved  and 
«poke  ;  and  the  grand-vizier  witnessed  this  mar^'el  with  his 
own  eyes,  and  acluiowledged  its  astounding  truth.  Hi« 
fiagacity  however  penetrated  the  natural  cause  of  this  mys- 
tery ;  the  head,  it  seems,  had  been  raised  somewhat  higher 
than  its  fellows,  and  the  wind  not  only  gave  it  motion,  but 
rattled  also  with  a  hollow  sound  through  its  nostrils. 
Although  those   passages   were  stopped  with  mortar  by 

*  "  Le  cnicifix  qull  avoit  en  main  n'empAcha  pas  M.  de  la  Fueillade  de 
s'emporter  un  peu  contre  I'indiscr^tion  de  son  7.^1e :  mais  il  le  fit  assez 
d6votement,  car  il  pronon^a  plusieurs  fois  le  nomde  Dieu  dans  la  petite 
reprimande  qu'il  luy  fit."— (Journal,  &.c.  p.  115.) 

t  Ibid.  p.  118. 


1. 


^ 


1^ 


292 


THIRD  FRENCH  EXPEDITION. 


command  of  Kiuperegli,  the  miracle  had  so  forcibly  seized 
upon  the  credulity  of  the  Mussulman  soldiery,  that  they 
would  not  be  convinced  it  had  really  ceased.*  A  general 
voice  proclaimed  that  the  Giaour  had  "been  converted  to  the 
faith  of  the  prophel  in  the  article  of  death ;  and  the  vizier 
was  not  able  to  put  an  end  to  the  illusion  till  the  head  was 
thrown  into  the  sea.* 

But  a  few  days  after  this  brilliant  extravagance,  the  vol- 
unteers, as  if  the  great  object  of  their  expedition  h&d  been 
completed,  re-embarked  for  France.     Of  the  six  hundred 
warriors,  fervid  with  youth,  illustrious  by  birth,  and  glitter- 
ing in  equipments,!  who  had   landed  in  Candia  scarcely  a 
month  before,  only  ♦wo  hundred  and  thirty  remained  alive ; 
of  these,  fifty  were  grievously  wounded,  many  of  whom 
afterward  died;  and  among  the  rest  were  scattered  the 
seeds  of  plague,  which  fatally  exhibited  themselves  in  their 
homeward  voyage.     Nevertheless,   the  ill  success  of  this 
enterprise  by  no  means  discouraged  the  French,  and  a  much 
larger  armament  was  supplied,  not  as  before  at  private  cost, 
A.  D.     ^"^  ^y  ^^^  ^*"«  himself.     Six  thousand  men,  under 
1669.    "^^  command  of  the  Dukes  de  Beaufort  and  Navailles 
'    entered  the  harbour  of  Candia  before  the  following 
midsummer ;  and  as  Louis  XIV.  still  avowedly  maintained 
amicable  relations  with  the  sultan,  this  breach  of  neutrality 
was  veiled  by  transporting  his  troops  under  the  papal  flag. 
"  Miserable  indeed  was  it,"  writes  one  of  the  ofticers  ac- 
companying this  expedition,  «  to  beheld  the  state  of  Candia 
when  we  landed ;   the   streets  were  covered  with  cannon- 
balls  and  bullets,  splinters  of  shells  and  grenades  ;  the  waJls 
of  every  church  and  public  edifice  were  shattered  and  nearly 
ruined  by  bombardment,  nor  was  there  one  house  left  which 
appeared  better  than  a  tottering  hovel ;  pestilential  stenches 
assailed  us  on  all  sides  ;  and  turn  whichever  way  we  would, 
dead,  wounded,  or  crippled  soldiers  met  our  eyes."t     The 
Turkish  camp  meanwhile  continued  to  exhibit  every  ap- 
pearance of  a  fixed  resolve  of  conquest ;  and  so  determined 
were  the  besiegers  not  to  remove  till  Candia  had  yielded, 
that  the  grand-vizier  and  one  hundred  of  his  chief  officers, 

+  P^'^  Guilleti^re,  Voyages  d'Athenes  et  de  Candie,  p.  373 
.     1  utii  apparenrio  feroc:  per  I'eia  chiari  per  la  iiobilsi,  lucidi  e  ornali 
per    vestmienu  e  par  I'arnr5e."-Nani,  part  ii.  lib.  xi.  p.  570. 
t  Desreaux  de  la  Richardiere,  Voyage  en  Candie,  cited  by  Daru. 


ITS  UNSUCCESSFUL  SORTIE. 


293 


instead  of  living  in  tents,  had  erected  substantial  houses. 
That  of  Kiuperegli  himself  is  described  as  consisting  of. 
two  stories,  six  feet  from  the  foundation  being  constructed 
of  stone,  the  upper  part  of  wood-work  and  stucco.* 

Strange  as  it  may  appear,  the  dearly  purchased  expe- 
rience of  M.  de  la  Fueillade  was  lost  upon  his  successors. 
The  main  body  of  the  French  troops  entered  the  city  by 
night ;  but  the  royal  guard,  urged  by  a  fanciful  sense  of 
honour,  awaited  full  day,  in  order  that  they  might  march 
openly  under  the  Turkish  batteries.  Nor  when  they 
manned  the  walls  were  they  less  deaf  than  their  predeces- 
sors to  the  sage  counsel  of  Morosini ;  but,  declining  all 
othar  service,  they  insisted  upon  an  immediate  sortie,  and 
refused  even  the  accompaniment  of  Venetian  guides  well 
acquainted  with  the  distribution  of  the  hostile  works.  The 
result  may  easily  be  anticipated.  The  Turks  wer^  in  the 
first  instance  chased  from  their  intrenchments,  as  before, 
with  great  slaughter ;  but  the  explosion  of  a  tumbril  spread 
panic  among  the  assailants,  whose  imaginations  were  so 
profoundly  imbued  with  terror  of  the  mines  of  Candia,  that 
every  footstep  seemed  trodden  upon  concealed  and  trea- 
cherous fires.  Soon  therefore  as  the  warning  cry  "  a  mine  ! 
a  mine  !"  passed  through  the  ranks,  every  man's  heart  sank 
within  him,  and  the  flight  became  general.  Five  hundred 
heads,  among  which  were  those  of  the  Duke  de  Beaufort 
and  many  other  nobles,  were  displayed  on  the  same  even- 
ing under  the  walls  ;  and  the  remaining  French,  dispirited 
by  their  repulse,  and  disgusted  by  the  wearisomeness  of 
garrison  duty,  broke  up  and  re-embarked  in  scarcely  two 
months  after  their  arrival,  in  spite  of  the  reclamations  of 
Morosini  and  the  tears  and  entreaties  of  the  suppliant  in- 
habitants. 

This  abandonment  by  the  French  was  a  signal  for  a  like 
defection  of  all  the  other  auxiliaries  ;  and  the  papal  galleys 
and  the  Maltese  and  German  troops  withdrew  in  succes- 
sion :  yet  although  left  with  no  more  than  three  thousand 
serviceable  men,  Morosini  still  had  suflScient  vigour  to  re- 
pulse a  general  assault.  But  further  defence  was  now 
hopeless,  and  it  remained  only  to  obtain  such  terms  as 
might  be  accepted  consistently  with  honour.     In  arranging 

• 
*  D©  la  Guilletiire,  Voyages  d'Alhenes  et  de  Candie. 

B  b2 


m 


^' 


u^% 


294 


SURRENDER  OF  CANDIA. 


PEACE. 


his  capitulation,  Morosini,  with  admirable  dexterity,  con- 
verted it  into  a  peace  ;    and  nobly  encountering  the  great 
hazard  of  exceeding  his  powers  in  a  case  which  promised 
benefit  to  his  country  (a  responsibility  dangerous  under 
any  government,  most  dangerous  under  the  oligarchy  of 
Venice),  he  stipulated  that  amicable  relations  should  be  re- 
newed by  the  surrender  of  all  Candia,  with  the  exception 
of  three  ports  ;*  which,  together  with   some  conquests  in 
Ualraatia,    Venice    was   to   retain.     When    the    garrison 
marched  out   from  the  walls  which   had  cost  the  lives  of 
thirty  thousand  Christians,  and  four  times  that  number  of 
inhdels,  Its  general  condition  may  be  estimated  from  that 
ot  a  single  corps.—"  The  regiment  of  Negron,  which  I 
commanded  "says  Phihbert  de  Jarry,t  "numbered  at  the 
beginning  of  the  siege  two  thousand  five  hundred  men,  and 
1  had  received  during  its  course  four  hundred  recruits.     We 

Tn  in  nn'  ^;'>'' ^^^/'•^  ^"^  «^JJiers  together,  but  seventy 
men  in  all,  of  whom  forty  were  cripples  !"     The  inhabitants 
ot  Candia  were  included  in  this  capitulation ;  and  so  faith- 
ful were  they  to  their  former  lords,  or  so  suspicious  of  the 
granny  of  those  new  masters  to  whom  their  native  seats 
were  about  to  be  transferred,  that,  as  Rycaut  assures  us, 
two  Orreek  priests,  one  woman,  and  three  Jews  were  al 
that  remained  behmd.t    The  rest,  with  their  whole  property 
were  received  on  board  the  Venetian  fleet ;  and  for  their 
conveyance,  as  well  as  that  of  the  garrison,  which  was  per- 
mitted  to  carry  with  it  all  the   artillery  but  such   as  had 
been  mounted  upon  the  walls  before  the  commencement 
of  the  saege,  fifteen  barks  and  forty  shallops  sufficed.     The 
keys  of  Oandia  were  presented  to  the  vizier  on  the  27th 
of  September.     The  members  of  thirty   noble   Venetian 
families  who  had  colonized  the  island  were   readmitted  to 
their  seats  m  the  Great  Council ;  the  Candiote  nobUity 
were  naturalized  as  citizens  of  Venice;  and  the  remainder 
ot  the  expatriated  population  was  distributed  throuah  Istria 
with  allotments  of  land  for  its  support.     Perhaps  no  clearer 

T  Histoire  de  Siege  de  Candie,  cited  by  Darn. 

?  Diedo  vanes  a  little  from  this  statement. -Tom.  Ui.  lib.  x.  p.  323. 


296 


image  can  be  conveyed  of  the  profound  impression  stamped 
upon  the  national  mind  by  the  remembrance  of  the  terrors  , 
of  this  mighty  struggle,  than  by  stating  that,  even  to  this 
h^ur,  after  the  lapse  of  more  than  a  century  and  a  half,  if 
a  Venetian  wishes  to  imply  a  "  war  to  the  knife,"  he  pro- 
verbially terms  it  Una  Guekra  di  Candia. 


Venefian  Larly  dying  her  hair. 
From  Titian.    See  page  278. 


U 


206 


ACCUSATION  OF  MOROSINI. 


ACQUITTAL  OF  MOROSINI. 


297 


'  t .  I 


lU 


CHAPTER  XX. 

PROM  A.  D.  1670  TO  A.  D.  1798. 

Trial  of  Morosini— Annulment  of  the  Election  of  Giovanni  Saeredo- 
War  with  Turkey-Conquest  of  the  Morea-Peace  of  CarKjl 
Second  War  with  Turkey-Loss  of  the  Morea-Successfbl  Defence 
of  Corfu,  by  Count  Schullen,bura-Beace  of  Passarowitz-Nemramy 
CoSr  aL°1''"'"^  by  Venice-Expeditions  against  the  ifS 
Corsairs-Attacks  upon  the  Ten-Demoralization  of  Venice-Com 
rnencementof  the  French  Revolution-Campaigns  of  nona^n^?„ 
Jf  LVrpn.h  v*'"  "^  the  Signory-BIoody  Affmy^t  Verona- Cap turS 
tLGnv^rnZlT\V.^'^''~^''''''P^''^  ^''^^'^^  War-Imbecil,?y  of 
ciny  vlnlcTvl";;;!^'^/'*''"^^  of  the  Doge  Manini-The  French  oc 
Fo?mio  transferred  to  Austria  by  the  Treaty  of  Campo 


A.  D. 


1674. 

CVII. 

1676. 

CVIII. 

1683. 

cix. 

1688. 

ex. 

1694. 

CXI. 

1700. 

CXII. 

1709. 

CXIII. 

1722. 

CXIV. 

1732. 

cxv. 

1735. 

CXVI. 

1741. 

cxvii. 

1752. 

CXVIII. 

1762. 

CXIX. 

1763. 

cxx. 

17/9. 

CXXI. 

1788. 

CXXII. 

DOGES. 

DOMINICO  CONTARINI. 

NicoLo  Sagredo. 

LuiGI  CONTARINI. 

Marc'  Antonio  Giustiniani. 
Francesco  Morosini. 

SiLVESTRO  VaLIERO. 
LuiGI  MoNCENIGO. 

Giovanni  Cornaro. 
Sebastiano  Moncenigo. 
Carlo  Ruzzini. 

LuiGI  PiSAM. 

Pietro  Grimani. 
Francesco  Loredawo. 
Marco  Foscarini. 
Alvizzo  Moncenigo. 
Paolo  Reniero. 
LuiGi  Manini. 


The  last  of  those  islands  from  the  possession  of  which 
Venice  might  once  have  asserted  a  title  to  regalHy  haiTnow 


been  severed  from  her  rule  ;  and  the  sole  memorials  of  hei 
former  sovereignty  over  Negropont,  Cyprus,  and  Candia 
were  to  be  found  in  the  standards  separately  blazoned  with 
the  armorial  bearings  of  those  kingdoms,  and  unfurled  on 
festivals  from  the  three  lofty  flagstaffs  in  front  of  St. 
Mark's  ;  and  in  the  three  golden  crowns  still  preserved  in 
its  treasury.  Heroic  as  had  been  the  defence  of  the  lost 
dominions  by  the  bravery  of  Morosini,  beneficial  as  was 
the  peace  concluded  by  his  wisdom,  there  were  not  wanting 
some  base  and  envious  spirits  among  his  countrymen  who 
regarded  that  bravery  and  that  wisdom  with  ill-dis- 
guised jealousy.  Not  many  months  after  the  close  ,"1*  ^* 
of  the  war,  Antonio  Corrario,  an  obscure  individual  ^°'"» 
who  had  raised  himself  into  notice  by  a  certain  popular 
eloquence,  commenced  a  series  of  invectives  against  the  late 
generalissimo.  He  denounced  the  peace  as  unauthorized, 
as  the  work  of  a  private  hand,  not  of  the  state,  and  there- 
fore as  affording  a  most  dangerous  precedent:  he  spoke  in 
terms  of  suspicion  both  of  the  courage  and  of  the  integrity 
of  Morosini,  and  he  called  upon  the  Great  Council  to  in- 
stitute a  close  inquiry  into  his  administration.  The 
council,  always  pleased  with  any  exercise  of  authority 
which  contributed  to  the  depression  of  eminent  merit,  voted 
assent  by  a  large  majority ;  and  as  a  preliminary  step,  it 
was  moved  that  the  accused  should  be  stripped  of  his  dig- 
nity of  procuraf.ore^  which  had  been  conferred  upon  him 
during  the  latter  period  of  the  siege  with  some  slight  devia- 
tion from  customary  form.  After  a  vehement  debate,  this 
cruel  and  injurious  proposition  was  rejected,  chiefly  through 
the  exertions  of  Giovanni  Sagredo,  a  brother  procuratorCf 
and  of  the  historian  Foscarini:  but  Morosini  nevertheless 
was  imprisoned  and  tried.  A  solemn  judgment  of  the 
senate  ultimately  pronounced  his  honourable  acquittal ;  and 
this  long  process,  commenced,  as  we  are  told,  with  rash 
zeal,  and  prosecuted  with  heat  and  passion,  terminated 
with  justice.  Such  a  conclusion  was  no  less  rare  in  Venice 
than  the  premises  were  frequent. 

Whether  from  a  rememl)rance  among  the  nobles  that 
Giovanni  Sagredo  had  thus  rescued  an  illustrious  object  of 
their  persecution  from  an  unworthy  sentence,  or  from  other 
causes,  is  by  no  means  to  be  ascertained  clearly,  but  when 


4'  4 


3M 


•% 


298 


TURKISH  WAR. 


FERDINANDO  D'OfilZZI. 


299 


A.  D.  ^^^  <5ucal  throne  became  vacant  by  the  death  of  hia 
1675  ^'*®^^®^  Nicolo,*  and  more  than  the  requisite  number 
of  suffrages  in  the  last  balloting  for  the  dogeship 
had  been  given  in  Giovanni's  favour,  the  council  gladly 
made  use  of  an  unprecedented  demur  to  prevent  confirma- 
tion of  this  choice.  The  palace  of  the  doge-elect  was 
already  filled  with  a  congratulating  throng,  the  officers  of 
his  household  were  arranged,  and  all  preparations  were 
made  for  the  assumption  of  his  new  dignity  ;  but,  on  the 
other  hand,  the  usual  measure  of  popular  applause  was 
wanting,  and  during  the  absence  of  the  nobles  in  the 
council-chamber,  the  Broglio  became  filled  with  a  fierce 
and  discontented  rabble.  The  gondoliers,  who  most  fre- 
quently took  the  lead  in  Venetian  tumults,  swelled  the 
seditious  uproar  by  loud  clamours,  against  the  parsimony 
of  Sagredo,  who  on  his  appointment  as  procuratore  had,  it 
seems,  omitted  a  customary  largesse  ;  and  they  reproached 
him  besides  with  a  personal  defect  certainly  not  redounding 
to  the  credit  of  his  moral  habits.  The  friends  of  the 
rejected  candidates  encouraged  these  demonstrations  of 
resistance,  and  the  council,  influenced  either  by  their  own 
jealousy,  or  by  alarm  at  the  popular  movement,  annulled 
their  first  election,  and  proceeded  to  choose  and  to  inau- 
gurate LuiGI  CoNTARINI.t 

The  reign  of  Contarini  was  pacific  :  that  of  his  succes- 
sor Marc'  Antonio  Giustiniani  witnessed  a  renewal  of 
A.  D.  hostilities  with  Turkey,  during  which  a  brief  sunshine 
1683.  ^^  Sf^U  shed  for  awhile,  and  for  the  last  time,  its 
parting  rays  upon  the  arms  of  the  republic.  Success 
in  the  approaching  contest,  as  we  are  gravely  assured  by  a 
professor  of  canon  law  in  the  university  of  Padua,  might 
have  been  fearlessly  augured  from  an  accident^  wWch  oc- 
curred on  the  day  of  Giustiniani's  coronation  ;  when,  as  he 

*  Palatins  (without  noticing  the  maxim  of  Vespasian)  relates  that  this 
doge  died  in  a  standing  posture,—"  stando  excessit,  ne  videretur  impulsus 
cadere."— Fasti  Ducales,  289. 

+  Burnett  {Letter  iii.)  declares  that  Sagredo  retired  to  Terra  Firma  in 
disgust;  Foscarini,  on  the  contrary,  passes  a  high  eulogy  on  the  equa- 
nimity with  wliich  he  endured  his  repulse,  and  afterward  administered 
some  of  the  highest  offices  in  the  republic— Lib,  ii.  ad  ann. 
T»  *w  ^  V  "  ^  linguam  corrigo — non  casu,  sed  manum  Principis  dirigente 
Deo.  —Vita  M.  A.  Justinian!  raptim  in  ftinere  ejus  edicta,  apud  Palatii 
Fast.  Due.  303.  ^  ^   v 


scattered  money  among  the  populace  before  the  gates  of 
St.  Mark's,  a  silver  coin  thrown  from  his  hand  struck  a 
Turkish  bystander  in  the  eye  and  deprived  him  of  sight. 
Since  the  termination  of  the  war  of  Candia,  Venice,  con- 
scious of  inability  to  resist,  had  endured  a  long  series  of 
insults  and  outrages  with  unremitting  patience  ;  and  the 
Porte,  no  doubt  encouraged  by  this  submission  from  her 
most  ancient  and  hitherto  her  most  pertinacious  enemy, 
directed  her  next  aggression  against  the  court  of  Austria. 
When  the  Vizier  Cara  Mustapha  marched  at  the  head  of 
two  hundred  thousand  men  on  Vienna,  he  found  the  garri- 
son of  that  metropolis  intrusted  to  a  Venetian  general, 
whom  a  train  of  romantic  circumstances  had  led  to  its 
command.  The  mother  of  Ferdinando  d'Obizzi,  a  lady  of 
distinguished  beauty,  many  years  since  had  fallen  a  victim 
to  the  despair  and  fury  of  a  noble,  whose  attempts  upon 
her  honour  she  had  indignantly  repulsed.  The  rash  suitor 
found  means  of  gaining  access  by  night  to  the  chamber 
which  his  mistress  occupied  with  her  child.  There,  stung 
to  madness  by  failure  in  his  hopes,  the  disappointed  lover 
poniarded  the  object  of  his  lawless  passion  ;  and,  on  the 
discovery  of  his  atrocious  crime,  he  underwent,  not  its  due 
punishment,  but  an  imprisonment  of  fifteen  years.  On  his 
release  after  that  period,  Ferdinando,  who  had  then  attained 
the  age  of  manhood,  resolutely  pursued  the  assassin  till  he 
avenged  his  mother's  death  by  the  blood  of  her  murderer  ; 
and  then,  escaping  to  the  Austrian  frontiers,  he  entered 
into  the  service  of  the  emperor,  in  which  his  merits  at 
length  raised  him  to  high  military  elevation.  Thus  de- 
fended, Vienna  held  out  till  the  chivalrous  valour  of 
John  Sobieski  and  his  Poles  totally  overthrew  the  -yaal 
invaders,  under  her  walls,  in  that  memorable  battle 
which  not  only  deUvered  Austria  from  her  immediate  peril, 
but  established  also  a  barrier  for  Christendom,  against 
which  no  subsequent  efforts  of  the  infidels  have  been  able 
to  prevail. 

Roused  by  that  great  and  splendid  triumph,  Venice  has- 
tened to  conclude  an  alliance  against  Turkey  with  Poland, 
Austria,  and  the  Czar  of  Moscovy,  the  ruler  of  a  people 
now  first  beginning  to  emerge  from  barbarism,  and  to  assume 
a  station  in  civilized  Europe.  During  the  negotiation  pre- 
ceding this  league,  a  compliment  of  great  elegance  wm 


i  j 

11 


300 


CONQUEST   OF   THE   MOREA. 


■  is 


f: 


!' 


:'■  -r 


offered  by  the  Polish  ambassador  to  the  distinguished 
attainments  of  the  doge.  The  envoy,  having  addressed  a 
speech  to  the  Collegio  in  Latin,  the  vernacular  language 
of  his  court,  was  answered  by  Giustiniani  in  the  "same 
tongue  promptly,  fluently,  and  correctly  ;  and  the  minister, 
struck  with  admiration,  observed,  "  Cum  crcderem  me  ad 
Venetos  verba  facturvrn,  Romayios  invent  /"  When  the  Mos- 
covite  ambassador  joined  in  a  like  expression  of  astonish- 
rnent,  he  was  told  that  the  answer  could  as  easily  have  been 
given  in  French,  Spanish,  Greek,  or  Hebrew  ;  that  Turkish, 
indeed,  was  the  sole  language  which  Giustiniani  abomi- 
nated, calling  it  fj/mpanum  irali  Dei.* 

Francesco  Morosini  was  once  more  appointed  general- 
issimo ;  and  the  brilliancy  and  rapidity  of  his  conquests 
fully  justified  the  confidence  displayed  by  his  former  perse- 
cutors that  all  past  wrongs  would  be  forgotten  at  the  call 
of  his  country.  A  few  weeks  sufliced  for  the  attack  and 
capture  of  the  island  of  Sta.  Maura,  and  of  the  town  of 
Previsa,  on  the  neighbouring  continent.  He  next  invested 
Coron  with  eight  thousand  men,  surprised  and  routed  a 
pacha  who  hastened  to  its  relief  with  a  greatly  superior 
force,  and  put  its  whole  garrison  to  the  sword,  as  a  punish- 
ment for  a  treacherous  breach  of  faith  during  the  arranae- 
ment  of  a  capitulation  which  they  had  proposed.  No  cost 
was  spared  by  Venice  to  enable  her  general  to  pursue  these 
first  successes,  and  troops  were  levied  in  every  country  of 
Europe  which  permitted  their  enrolment.  Sweden,  Bruns- 
wick, and  Saxony  aflTorded  reinforcements,  which  obtained 
for  Morosini  an  uninterrupted  career  of  victory  in  the  Morea 
during  three  campaigns  ;  till,  aided  by  the  suffering  natives, 
he  chased  the  seraskier  from  post  to  post,  drove  him  across 
the  isthmus  of  Corinth,  and  remained  in  possession  of  the 
entire  peninsula,  except  the  single  town  of  Malvasia. 

The  isthmus  was  the  main  key  of  the  conquered  province, 
and  for  its  greater  security,  Morosini  immediately  occupied 
Lepanto,  Patras,  and  other  strongholds  on  its  western 
gulf.  He  then  commenced  similar  movements  on  its 
opposite  shore  ;  and  in  the  course  of  those  operations,  the 
blind  fury  of  war  inflicted  on  the  fine  arts,  by  civilized 
hands,  a  blow  more  fatal,  perhaps,  than  any  they  had  been 

*  Palatius,  308, 


HONOURS   CONFERRED   ON   MOROSINI.  301 

doomed  to  encounter  from  barbarian  violence.  The  Vene- 
tians, having  marched  on  Athens,  immediately  occupied  the 
modern  town  Setines,  which  is  without  walls.  Six  days' 
bombardment,  however,  was  directed  against  the  inaccessi- 
ble Acropolis,  to  which  the  Turks  had  retired  ;  and  a  shell 
discharged  at  random,  and  falling  on  the  Parthenon,  which 
•  had  been  converted  into  a  magazine,  fired  the  powder  and 
shattered  in  pieces  the  roof  hitherto  preserved  entire.  The 
majestic  pile,  thus  rendered  unserviceable  for  ordinary  uses, 
became  worthless  in  the  eyes  of  the  rude  masters  to  whom 
it  was  soon  afterward  to  revert ;  and  they  saw  in  its  mag- 
nificent remains  no  more  than  a  huge  mass  of  ready-chis- 
elled stone,  from  which  materials  might  be  obtained  with 
greater  ease  and  at  less  cost  than  if  hewn  from  the  quarry. 
In  the  opinion  of  the  phlegmatic  historian  Foscarini,  how- 
ever, this  irreparable  calamity  was  amply  compensated  by 
the  surrender  of  the  Acropolis  to  his  countrymen.*  Among 
the  trophies  which  immortaUze  this  conquest  are  to  be  num- 
bered the  two  marble  l^ions  found  on  the  Piraeus,  which 
still  sentinel  the  gates  of  the  arsenal  at  Venice. t 

Lavish  rewards  were  deservedly  showered  upon  Morosini 
by  the  gratitude  of  his  country  ;  his  title  of  cavalier e  was 
declared  hereditary  (a  rare  honour,  bestowed  as  yet  on  no 
more  than  two  illustrious  houses,  the  Quirini  and  the  Con- 
tarini),  and  since  he  was  without  male  issue,  a  remainder 
was  granted  to  his  nephew.  Like  the  Scipios,  he  received 
d,  cognomen  derived  from  the  country  which  had  witnessed 
his  heroic  exploits  ;  his  stat  ue  was  erected  in  the  armoury 
of  the  Ten,  with  an  inscription  of  dignified  brevity,  ^^ Francisco 
Mauroceno  Peloponnesiacoj  adhuc  viucntij  S.  P.  A.  1687;" 

*  "  Many  of  the  statues  on  the  posticum  (we  are  fold  in  the  Memoran- 
dum on  the  Earl  of  Elirin's  Purstiits  in  Greece),  which  had  beer,  thrown 
down  by  the  explosion,  had  been  absolutely  pounded  for  mortar,  because 
they  furnished  the  whitest  marble  within  reach."— "  Soon  atterward, 
somewhat  higher  up,  we  also  saw,  among  some  loose  stones  used  as  the 
materials  of  a  wall,  a  piece  of  sculpture  of  white  marble,  in  very  bold 
relief,  representing  the  torso  of  a  male  figure.  This  proved  t»  be  nolhmg 
less  than  a  fragment  of  one  of  the  metopes  belonging  to  the  Parthenon  " 
—Dr.  E.  D.  Clarke's  Travels,  Ui.  475.  4to. 

t  Their  inscription  runs  as  below,—  "Francjscus  Maurocenus  Pelo- 
ponnesiacus,  expugnatis  Athenis,  marmorea  Leonum  simulacra  trium- 
phaU  manu  e  Piraeo  direpta  in  Patriam  transtulit.  futura  VeneU  LeoniB 
juas  fuerant  Minervae  Atticae  ornamenta." 

Vol.  IL— C  c 


302 


DEATH   OF    MOROSINI. 


A.  D.  ^"^  ^"  ^^®  spring  of  the  following  year,  on  the  death  of 
1688.  ^^^s^^"^^"^j  ^6  was  raised,  by  acclamation  and  in 
his  absence,  to  the  vacant  throne.  The  general 
voice  forbade  all  competition  ;  but  the  jealous  vigilance  of 
the  aristocracy  deteriorated  this  high  token  of  national  con- 
fidence and  affection,  by  despatching  to  Morosini's  quarters 
two  senators,  who  were  to  share  authority  with  the  new 
doge  as  assessors  of  his  council. 

The  star  of  Morosini  had  now  attained  its  highest  ascend- 
ant ;  henceforward  we  shall  perceive  it  in  ^^cline.  Con- 
tinuing his  functions  as  generalissimo,  he  landed  before  the 
city  of  Negropont,  and  had  already  driven  the  Turks  within 
the  walls,  when  the  plague  showed  itself  in  his  camp  ;  and, 
after  destroying  a  full  third  of  his  troops,  exposed  the  re- 
mainder, enfeebled  by  disease  and  discouraged  by  the  loss 
of  their  comrades,  to  an  attack  from  the  seraskier.  He 
was  repulsed,  but  not  without  inflicting  terrific  slaughter. 
Reinforcements  arrived  soon  afterward,  and  Morosini  gave 
a  general  assault,  which  cost  hun  numerous  lives,  and  gained 
only  a  hard-disputed  outwork.  After  six  weeks  more  of 
unavailing  effort,  he  abandoned  the  siege  with  the  intention 
of  investing  Malvasia ;  but  there  also  evil  fortune  pursued 
him,  and  a  severe  illness  compelled  his  return  to  Venice. 
^^  jj^     The  war  continued  with  various  success  during  the 

1693.  ^pl'^'wing  five  years  ;  in  the  last  of  which  the  Vene- 
tian commander,  Moncenigo,  neglected  to  profit  by 

a  favourable  opportunity  for  the  recovery  of  Candia.  A 
landing  was  successfully  effected  before  Canea,  regular  ap- 
proaches were  made  to  the  walls,  and  a  practicable  breach 
was  already  reported  ;  when  the  besieging  general,  alarmed 
at  a  false  rumour  of  a  threatened  attack  upon  the  Morea, 
withdrew  at  the  very  moment  in  which  victory  appeared 
almost  to  woo  him.  His  immediate  disgrace  ensued,  and 
Morosini,  although  now  advanced  in  years  and  struggling 
with  infirmities,  was  called  once  more  to  the  command. 
A.  D.     ^"^  nature  gave  way  under  exertions  disproportion- 

1694.  ^^^  ^°  ^^  remaining  vigour ;  and,  after  a  campaign 
spent  unsuccessfully  in  pursuit  of  an  enemy  who 

perpetually  eluded  him,  he  expired  during  the  following 
wmter  at  Napoli  di  Romania. 
How  greatly  Venice  had  declmed  in  a  few  short  years 


PEACE  OF  CARLOWITZ. 


303 


from  the  uninterrupted  pre-eminence  on  the  seas  which  she 
had  maintained  during  the  war  of  Candia,  was  too  plainly 
shown  in  the  issue  of  four  naval  battles  fought  during  the 
reign  of  Silvkstro  Valibro,  Morosini's  successor.  All 
of  these  engagements  were  most  sanguinary ;  in  one,  at 
least,  the  Turks  were  superior ;  and  the  result  of  the  others 
was  inconclusive.  In  theJast  year  of  the  seventeenth  cen- 
tury, the  great  powers  of  the  league  hitherto  subsisting 
against  the  Turks,  some  weary  of  the  protracted  contest, 
some  alarmed  at  the  gigantic  projects  manifested  by  Louis 
XIV.  for  the  attainment  of  the  Spanish  succession,  readily 
accepted  the  mediation  of  England  with  the  Porte ; 
and  by  the  peace  of  Cariowitz,  the  Morea,  the  glo-  ."t*  q* 
rious  fruit  of  Morosini's  prowess,  was  ceded  to  Ven- 
ice.  Once  again  she  indulged  a  vain  hope  of  retaining  that 
important  conquest  by  the  feeble  barrier  of  a  chain  of  posts 
drawn  across  the  isthmus  ;  and  for  the  third  or  fourth  time 
in  her  history,  the  rampart  of  the  Peloponnesians  was  re- 
newed in  order  to  be  overthrown. 

During  the  war  of  the  succession  which  occupied  the 
first  thirteen  years  of  the  eighteenth  century,  Venice,  in- 
different to  the  quarrel  between  France  and  Austria,  pro- 
fessed a  neutrality  which  was  hourly  invaded.  Her  prov- 
inces were  traversed  by  the  armies  and  moistened  by  the 
blood  of  the  conflicting  parties,  in  more  than  one  campaign ; 
and  the  Bresciano  and  the  Veronese,  of  which  latter  dis- 
trict, in  spite  of  three  centuries  of  possession  by  the  re- 
public, the  emperor  still  affected  to  speak  as  his  own,  wit- 
nessed many  a  hard-fought  combat ;  and  afforded  a  theatre 
on  which  the  Mareschals  Catinat  and  Villeroi,  the  Duke  of 
Savoy,  the  Duke  of  Vendome,  and  Prince  Eugene  exhib- 
ited numerous  well-known  deeds  of  skill  and  valour.  Even 
the  sacredness  of  the  Adriatic  itself  did  not  escape  violation ; 
and  many  vessels  suspected,  in  most  cases  not  unjustly,  of 
conveying  stores  to  the  Austrian  ports,  under  the  Venetian 
or  other  flags,  were  captured  and  destroyed.  We  are  told 
indeed  of  an  English  ship  equipped  for  the  service  of  the 
emperor,  fired  and  blown  up  by  the  French  while  she  lay 
unapprehensive  of  danger,  in  the  very  depths  of  the  harbour 
of  Malamocco.  The  treaty  of  Utrecht  terminated 
these  violences,  and  the  republic,  although  neither  a  ^'  ^' 
party  in  the  war,  nor  a  mediator  of  the  peace,  was  ^^^^'' 
invited  to  send  her  plenipotentiary  to  the  congress. 


^1 


i 


304 


RENEWED  TURKISH  WAR. 


I 


It  was  little  however  to  be  expected  that  the  Ottoman 
Porte  would  consent  without  an  opposing  effort  to  the  eter- 
nal renunciation  of  the  Morea ;  and  scarcely  had  tranquil- 
lity been  restored  in  the  west,  before  the  din  of  preparation 
was  heard  at  Constantinople.  The  real  object  of  this  ar- 
mament could  not  be  doubted  ;  and  Venice,  by  her  inaction, 
must  be  supposed  to  have  persuaded  herself  that  voluntary 
blindness  would  afford  safety  ;  like  that  bird  which  is  said 
to  hope  that  she  will  escape  capture  if  she  can  but  once 
avert  her  own  eyes  from  her  pursuers.  Dreading  the  ap- 
proach of  war  far  too  deeply  to  beheve  it  with  readiness, 
the  signory  affected  to  credit  the  pretexts  advanced  by  the  di- 
van. Troops,  it  was  said,  were  being  levied  from  an  appre- 
hension of  revolt  at  Constantinople ;  ships  were  being  assem- 
bled and  stores  embarked  to  chastise  some  insurgents  on  the 
frontiers  of  Dalmatia.  And  even  when  the  hailo  of  Venice 
was  committed  to  the  Seven  Towers,  and  one  hundred  thou- 
sand Turks  under  the  grand-vizier,  co-operating  with  a 
fleet  of  more  than  one  hundred  sail,  were  greedily  advan- 
cing upon  their  defenceless  prey,  Giovanni  Delfino,  provve- 
ditore  of  the  Morea,  now  invested  with  the  sounding  title 
of  generalissimo,  could  number  only  eight  thousand  troops, 
eleven  galleys,  and  eight  ships  of  the  line  at  his  disposal. 
The  course  of  neutrality  which  Venice  had  recently  adopted, 
deprived  her  also  of  allies.  France,  England,  Spain,  and 
the  Netherlands  declined  further  interference  than  solicita- 
tion for  the  release  of  hi  r  bailo ;  the  emperor  mediated,  but 
in  vain,  for  peace  ;  the  po})e  supplied  four  of  his  own  gal- 
leys and  procured  two  others  from  the  Grand-duke  of  Tus- 
cany ;  and  the  Knights  of  Malta  added  six  as  their  contin- 
gent to  this  pitiful  confederacy. 

We  need  not  trace  minutely  the  progress  of  a  catastrophe 
which  must  have  already  been  anticipated.  Tinos,  an  im- 
portant island,  one  of  the  earliest  Venetian  possessions  in 
the  East,  and  so  strongly  fortified  that  it  had  maintained 
itself  during  the  whole  war  of  Candia,  capitulated  at  the 
first  summons  ;  and  its  governor  expiated  his  cowardice  or 

his  treachery  by  perpetual  imprisonment.  Corinth 
1714     ^^^^  ^  parley  after  four  days'  investment ;  and  in 

spite  of  terms  which  the  vizier  had  granted,  the  ma- 
jor part  of  its  garrison  was  put  to  the  sword  on  the  spot,  the 
rest,  after  having  been  conveyed  on  shipboard  to  NapoU  di 


ALLUNCE  WITH  THE  EMPEROR. 


305 


Romania,  were  beheaded  in  sight  of  the  Venetian  soldiery 
on  its  ramparts.  The  isthmus  was  easily  forced  ;  Egina, 
Modon,  Argos,  and  Malvasia  surrendered  without  firing  a 
shot ;  and  Napoli,  stormed  at  night  after  a  brief  but  gallant 
defence,  itself  underwent  those  horrors  of  indiscriminate 
massacre  which  it  had  recently  seen  inflicted  on  others.  In 
a  few  months,  the  whole  Morea  was  reconquered ;  and 
Delfino,  who  had  taken  refuge  in  his  fleet,  abandoned  the 
lost  province  to  its  fate,  avoided  battle,  permitted  the  cap- 
ture of  Cerigo  in  his  very  presence,  ;md  retired  to  Corfu. 

By  those  few  cities  of  Candia  which  still  acknowledged 
fealty  to  St.  Mark  was  the  only  resistance  offered  worthy 
of  former  Venetian  renown  :  but  even  in  them  also  the  Ot- 
tomans ultimately  prevailed  ;  and  the  capitulation  of  Spina 
Longa  and  of  Suda  before  the  close  of  1715,  stripped  the 
republic  of  the  last  scanty  remnant  of  her  once  vast  oriental 
dominion.  So  grievous  indeed  was  the  degeneration  of 
that  people  who  in  former  ages  vanquished  the  capital  of 
the  East,  and  who  even  recently  had  defended  Candia  for 
more  than  a  quarter  of  a  century,  that  on  the  removal  of 
Delfino  from  his  command  with  disgrace,  three  elections 
were  necessary  before  any  noble  would  accept  the  vacant 
office ;  and  even  when  Andrea  Pisani  at  length  departed 
for  the  fleet,  his  instructions  were,  not  to  attempt  reconquest, 
but  to  content  himself  by  protecting  the  islands  at  the  mouth 
of  the  Adriatic.  A  change  in  political  interests,  however, 
furnished  Venice  with  one  important  ally  ;  and  the  emperor, 
Charles  VI.,  fearing  that  tihe  Bourbons  might  establish 
themselves  afresh  in  Italy,  bartered  for  the  aid  of  the  re- 
public, in  that  country,  if  it  should  be  needed,  by  an  imme- 
diate powerful  diversion  against  the  Turks  on  the  frontiers 
of  Hungary.  Prince  Eugene,  accordingly,  was  despatched 
on  that  service ;  and  he  preserved  Dalmatia  by  occupying 
the  infidel  force  no  longer  required  in  the  Morea ;  and 
which,  but  for  the  presence  of  an  Austrian  army,  would 
have  poured  down  unresisted  on  the  colonies  of  Venice. 

Corfu  nevertheless  was  left  open  to  attack  ;  but  the  great 
strength  of  its  fortifications  and  the  acknowledged 
skill  of  its  commander  gave  promise  of  most  vigor-    .  J,  ^' 
ous  resistance.     The  Venetian  army  had  been  com- 
mitted to  the  charge  of  the  Saxon  Count  Schullemburg ;  a 
soldier  who  has  won  deserved  immortahty  by  eluding  the 

Cc2 


306 


BRILLIANT  DEFENCE  OF  CORFU. 


;!' 


utmost  efforts  of  the  Swedish  Charles  when  in  the  full  ca- 
reer of  victory.*     Thirty  thousand  foot  and  three  thousand 
horse  were  landed  without  opposition  by  the  Capudan  Pa- 
cha under  the  walls  of  Corfu  ;  and  their  first  operations 
were  directed  against  the  neighbouring  heights  of  Abraham 
and  St.  Salvador,  which  command  the  city.     Those  posi- 
tions were  most  vigorously  defended,  and  afforded  many 
opportunities  for  the  display  of  gre;it  personal  valour.     We 
read  of  a  Jew  who  on  one  occasion  discomfited  with  his  sin- 
gle hand  eight  assailants  by  whom  he  had  been  surrounded ; 
and  who,  upon  receiving  baptism,  was  promoted  on  the 
spot  to  the  rank  of  captain.     The  heights,  nevertheless, 
were  at  length  mastered ;  and  the  besiegers,  not  attemptino- 
either  to  advance  by  regular  approaches  or  to  batter  in 
breach,  commenced  a  series  of  most  harassing  and  perpetu- 
ally renewed  assaults  sword  in  hand,  under  cover  of  an  in- 
cessant  bombardment.      The   inhabitants   sought    refuo^e 
within  the  numerous  caverns  and  excavations  with  which 
the  rocky  site  of  their  town  abounds ;  and  Schullemburg 
concerted  a  sortie,  in  which,  while  the  bravery  of  his  Italian 
troops  defeated  the  infidels  with  great  slaughter,  the  mis- 
conduct of  his  Germans  lost  the  fruit  of  victory,  by  pouring 
a  mistaken,  deadly  fire  upon  their  confederates,  and  slayin" 
at  the  first  volley  two  hundred  picked  Sclavonians.     It  was 
not  possible  to  restore  confidence  after  this  unhappy  colli- 
sion,  and  the  conquerors  hurried  back  to  their  walls  in 
alarm  and  disorder. 

At  length  the  seraskier  of  the  Morea,  impatient  of  loncrer 
delay,  and  perhaps  alarmed  at  its  probable  consequences'to 
his  own  head,  gave  orders  for  a  general  storm.  Pressed  on 
all  quarters  and  overpowered  by  numbers,  the  garrison  at 
first  everywhere  gave  way ;  but  the  vacant  places  of  the 
armed  men  were  rapidly  supplied  by  the  citizens,  by  priests, 
and  even  by  women,  who  fought  with  the  courage  of  despera- 
tion, and  stemmed  the  onset  of  the  infidels.  "  What  is  it 
you  are  about  to  do  ]"  inquired  Schullemburg  of  a  Greek 
monk  who  was  rushing  a  second  time  to  the  ramparts  with 
a  huge  iron  cross  uplifted  in  his  hands.  "  Let  me  alone, 
let  me  alone,  that  I  may  dash  this  cursed  crucifix  at  their 
heads !"  was  the  reply  of  the  enthusiast,  not  peroeiving 

*  Voltaire,  Charles  XIL  liv.  iii. 


**    ^ 


!in« 


ITTV  A  T      r*T'ccTr»vr     ni:'     rrTTt-'     ii*/-v»Ti-t  » 


THE    TURKS   ABANDON    THE    SIEGE. 


307 


that  his  zealous  ardour  betrayed  him  into  inadvertent  blas- 
phemy.* The  besiegers  however  scaled  the  walls  and 
planted  thirty  standards  on  their  summits,  and  all  would 
have  been  lost  but  for  the  consummate  generalship  of  the 
Saxon.  Placincr  himself  at  the  head  of  eight  hundred 
men,  and  descending  by  a  postern  upon  the  glacis,  he  charged 
the  assailants  unexpectedly  in  rear,  threw  them  into  com- 
plete disorder,  chased  them  from  the  works  which  they 
had  gained,  pursued  them  to  their  camp,  and  slew  two 
thousand  of  the  fugitives.  Nor  was  this  repulse  their  sole 
disaster.  A  hurricane  on  the  succeeding  night  swept  away 
their  tents  and  inundated  their  encampment  with  rain ; 
and  so  far  alarmed  them  for  the  safety  of  their  fleet,  that 
with  loud  and  mutinous  clamours  they  demanded  instant 
re-embarkation.  At  dawn  their  terror  was  augmented  by 
the  sight  of  a  numerous  hostile  armament  in  the  offing. 
It  was  a  Spanish  squadron  arriving  with  reinforcements 
for  the  garrison  :  and  the  seraskier,  perceiving  that  it  was 
no  longer  possible  to  arrest  the  contagion  of  panic  and  in- 
subordination, made  arrangements  for  precipitate  retreat 
on  the  following  night,  having  sacrificed  fifteen  thousand 
men  during  an  unavailinu  siege  of  two-and-forty  days. 
Not  many  hours  after  this  flight  a  reconnoitring  party  from 
the  garrison,  struck  by  the  unusual  stillness  in  the  enemy*s 
advanced  posts,  ventured  to  penetrate  onward  to  their  lines, 
and  was  astonished  by  discovering  their  abandonment. 
Numerous  wounded,  the  entire  stores,  tents,  baggage, 
magazines,  and  artillery  were  the  prize  of  the  besieged ; 
and  the  great  services  of  Schullemburg  were  rewarded  by 
substantial  tokens  of  gratitude,  and  by  the  most  honourable 
of  all  monuments, — a  statue  erected  during  his  lifetime  on 
the  walls  which  he  had  defended. 

Some  bloody  naval  engagements,  unproductive  of  any 
serious  result,  and  the  capture  by  Schullemburg  of 
Previsa  and  Wonizza,  occurred  during  the  following  i^'i-v* 
year, — in  which  the  Imperialists  also  under  Prince 
Eugene  became  masters  of  Belgrade.  The  approaching 
reconquest  of  the  Morea  was  now  confidently  and  not  un- 
reasonably anticipated  by  the  signory  ;    but  the  emperor 

*  "  Lasciate,  lasciate,  Christi  maledeui  su  la  testa,"  cited  hy  Dam 
from  "  Voyage  dans  les  Isles  et  Possessions  Venitiennes  du  Levant,** 
par  A.  Gr'isset  de  St.  Saveur,  liv,  vi.  ch.  69. 


i 


808 


FINAL    CESSION    OF   THE   MOREA. 


^il 


sought  profit  from  his  own  victories  and  those  of  his  alHeg 
not  by  extending  the  dominion  of  Venice,  but  by  con- 
cluding an  advantageous  peace,  at  a  moment  in  which  the 
progress  of  the  Spaniards  in  Italy  awakened  his  fears.     A 
congress,  under  the  mediation  of  England  and  the  United 
Provinces,  was  accordingly  assembled  at  Passarowitz  in 
Servia ;  and  while  Venice,  borne  forward  on  the  tide  of 
propitious  fortune,  was  vigorously  pursuing  hostilities,  she 
Julv'21    ^^^^"^^  *®  ^^^  surprise  and  indignation  that  a  treaty 
1718.'  ^^^  ^^^^^  signed,  by  which  her  final  cession  of  the 
'    Morea  was  peremptorily  decided.      To  protract  a 
war  with  Turkey  after  this  defection  of  Austria  was  man- 
ifestly beyond  the  power  of  the  republic ;  and  she  reluc- 
tantly acceded  to  the  proposed  conditions.     The  boundaries 
then  fixed  continued  unchanged  during  the  remainder  of 
her  political  existence.     Her  dominions  at  that  time,  and 
ever  afterward,  comprised  first  the  original  Dogado ;  then, 
on  the  Terra  Firma  of  Italy,  the  provinces  of  Bergamo, 
Brescia,  Crema,  Verona,  Vicenza,  the  Polesina  of  Rovigo, 
and  the  March  of  Treviso ;  northward,  Friuli  and  Istria ; 
eastward,  parts  of  Dalmatia  and  of  Albania,  and  their  de- 
pendent islands;   in  the  Ionian  Sea,  Corfu,  Paxo,  Sta. 
Maura,  Ithaca,  Zante,  Asso,  the  Strophades,  and  Cerigo. 
The  population  of  these  territories  altogether,  according  to 
a  census  in  1722,  amounted  to  two  million  five  hundred 
thousand  souls;  in  1788  it  had  reached  three  millions,  of 
which  number  the  city  of  Venice  alone  counted  one  hun- 
dred and  forty-nine  thousand  four  hundred  and  seventy-six 
inhabitants.* 

From  the  signature  of  the  treaty  of  Passarowitz  to  the 
moment  of  her  dissolution,  a  period  of  almost  eighty  years, 
the  history  of  Venice  as  connected  with  the  rest  of  Europe 
is  one  entire  blank.  Her  weakness  compelled  her  to  pre- 
serve unbroken  neutrality  amid  all  the  great  contests  in 
which  other  powers  were  from  time  to  time  involved,  and 
the  sole  cares  of  her  government  were  directed  to  the 
maintenance  of  internal  tranquillity  by  a  vigilant  police, 
of  foreign  peace  by  an  active  diplomacy.  In  this  smooth 
and  unruflled  course  so  slight  an  incident  as  a  briefly  sus- 
pended intercourse  with  England  has  been  thought  worthy 


The  census  of  1810  gave  little  more  than  103,000! 


CHASTISEMENT    OF    AFRICAN    CORSAIRS.      309 

of  somewhat  particular  record.  The  British  government 
took  oflTence  at  the  distinctions  paid  to  the  unfortunate 
Charles  Edward  when  he  visited  the  Lagune  in  1743  under 
the  title  of  Count  of  Albany.  It  seems  that  when  he  was 
present  at  a  balloting  of  the  Grand  Council  a  separate 
place  was  assigned  him,  and  he  was  received  on  the  prin- 
cipal stairs  by  a  cavalier e.  The  petty  and  ungenerous 
jealousy  which  wished  to  deny  those  few,  poor,  empty 
honours  a  slight  mitigation  of  the  bitter  remembrances  of 
fallen  greatness,  demands  unqualified  contempt;  and  we 
relate,  not  without  shame,  that  the  cabinet  of  St.  James's, 
then  swayed  by  the  Duke  of  Newcastle,  indignantly  or- 
dered the  Venetian  ambassador  to  quit  the  kingdom  in 
twenty-four  hours ;  and  that  during  a  period  of  five  years 
neither  the  apologies  of  the  senate  nor  even  the  mediation 
of  Cardinal  Fleury  availed  any  thing  towards  the  renewal 
of  former  amicable  correspondence.* 

Twice  only  after  the  treaty  of  Passarowitz  did  Venice 
appear  in  arms,  and  on  neither  occasion  in  a  European 
quarrel.  In  submitting  to  purchase  immunity  from  plunder 
at  the  hands  of  the  corsairs  of  Africa,  the  republic  only 
participated  in  the  general  dishonour  of  the  civilized  mari- 
time world  ;  and  assented,  in  common  with  far  more  pow- 
erful states,  to  an  ignoble  policy  which  weighed  with  cau- 
tious balance  the  price  of  resistance  against  that  of  tribute. 
The  tardy  execution  of  vengeance  upon  those  barbarian 
pirates  has  been  reserved  for  our  own  days, — would  that  it 
had  been  for  England  ! — and  posterity  will  assign  its  fitting 
rank  of  glory  to  a  great  action  which  has  passed  under 
the  eyes  of  its  peculiar  generation  almost  without  regard, — 
stifled  and  overwhelmed,  as  ii  were,  by  more  pressing  and 
more  immediate,  but  far  less  important  and  less  durable,  in- 
terests. Both  in  1765  and  in  1774  Venice  chastised  the 
deys  of  Tripoli  and  of  Tunis  with  a  spirit  which  might 
have  shamed  into  imitation  naval  powers  of  yet  higher  sta- 
tion ;  and  the  name  of  Angelo  Emo,  her  admiral  in  the 
latter  of  those  expeditions,  may  be  justly  classed  with 
many  which  adorned  the  better  days  of  his  country. 

Much  of  the  period  between  1761  and  1779  was  passed 
in  struggles  between  the  oligarchy  of  the  Ten  and  the  no- 


i 


')l 


'I 


m 


)( 


*  Diedo,  Storia  Yen.,  torn.  iv.  p.  421. 


p.   Y' 


310 


LUXURY    OF   VENICE. 


bles  who  suffered  under  its  oppression.     In  the  first-named 
year  tue  inquisitors  of  state,  by  an  exercise  of  despotism 
more  fitted  for  long-departed  ages  than  for  the  season  to  which 
they  ventured  to  apply  it,  banished  or  secretly  imprisoned 
many  of  the  highest  magistrates  in  the  state  who  opposed 
their  political  views.     So  general  was  the  consequent  india. 
nation  of  the  Great  Council,  that  on  the  next  renewal  of  the 
1  en  an  attack  similar  to  that  made  in  the  reign  of  Giovanni 
Cornaro  was  repeated  ;  and  no  candidate  for  admission  re- 
ceived enough  balls  to  render  his  election  valid.     By  tem- 
porizing the  opposition  was  broken  and  the  difficulty  eluded  • 
so  that  in  the  end  the  obnoxious  body  was  confirmed  in  its 
overweening  authority,  greatly  to  the  joy  of  the  populace, 
by  whom  the  nobles  at  large  were  felt  to  be  burdensome 
and  who  gladly  therefore  supported  a  tyranny  weighinff 
heavily  on  their  own  tyrants.     Other  causes  renewed  dis- 
cussions  of  the  same  kind  in  1773,  in  1777,  and  in  1779- 
and  on  each  occasion  they  were  conducted  with  a  boldness 
and  a  vehemence,  proclaiming  in  a  language  easily  to  be  in- 
terpreted how  greatly  the  influence  of  the  mysterious  and 
inexorable  tribunal  which  was  attacked  had  diminished  in 
potency. 

Discarding  for  the  future  all  projects  of  aggrandizement, 
and  content  if  she  could  but  preserve  herself  unharmed, 
Venice,  during  the  remainder  of  her  independent  existence, 
Bought  distinction  as  a  general  mart  for  pleasure,  and  en- 
deavoured  to  find  m  luxury  a  compensation  for  the  sur- 
render  of  ambition.  Triumphant  in  pre-eminence  of  licen- 
tiousness, she  became  the  Sybaris  of  the  modem  world, 
the  loose  and  wanton  realm 

...  her  court  where  naked  Venus  keeps, 
And  Cupids  ride  the  lion  of  the  deeps. 

Scarcely  did  a  sun  rise  upon  the  Lagune  uncelebrated  by 
the  pomp  of  some  religious  or  political  festival ;  the  whole 
year  was  one  continued  holyday,  in  which  amusement  ap- 
peared to  be  the  professed  and  serious  occupation,— the 
pand  and  universal  object  of  existence  among  their  in- 
habitants. Besides  the  numerous  fixed  and  customary 
ceremonials,  occasions  for  extraordinary  joy  were  greedily 
sought  in  the  accession  of  a  new  doge,  the  election  of  a 


DEGRADATION   OF   THE   NOBIUTT. 


311 


:\] 


j>rocuratorey  or  the  entrance  of  a  foreign  ambassador ;  and 
the  annual  recurrence  of  the  carnival  seldom  attracted  fewer 
than  fifty  thousand  strangers  from  all  parts  of  Europe  to 
mingle  in  the  sports  of  St.  Mark's.     The  general  use  of 
masks  permitted  unrestrained  indulgence,  by  removing  the 
strongest  of  all  worldly  checks, — a  fear  of  public  scandal. 
National  consent  rendered  this  incognito  strictly  inviolable  ; 
and  under  its  security  the   professed  religious,   whether 
male    or    female,  freely    participated    in   those  forbidden 
pleasures  which  they  had  vowed  to  renounce  ;  the  nuncio 
of  the  pope  assisted  at  court  balls  ;  and  the  gravest  senator 
engaged  at  the  faro  bank  or  resorted  to  his  casino,  a  small 
apartment  adjoining  the  Piazza,  in  most  instances  avow- 
edly dedicated  to  purposes  of  gallantry.     A  destructive 
passion  for  play  was  encouraged  by  the  government,  not- 
withstariding  some  occasional  prohibitions  compelled  by 
the  startling  ruin  which  it  produced.     In  the  gorgeous 
saloon  of  the  Ridotto  seldom  fewer  than  eighty  gaming 
tables  were  spread  nightly  before  a  feverish  throng  who 
courted  fortune  masked   and  in  silence.     At  each  board 
presided  one  of  the  nobility  unmasked  and  in  his  robes  of 
office  ;  for  to  that  class  alone  belonged  the  disgraceful  mo- 
nopoly of  banking  :  and  to  increase  their  degradation,  they 
traded  in  this  commerce  of  vice,  not  upon  their  own.  account, 
but  as  the  hired  servants  of  some  wealthy  capitalist  of  infe- 
rior rank,  who  frequently  was  a  Jew.    Enervated  by  luxury, 
and  far  removed  from  the  sight  and  sound  of  arms,  no  per- 
sonal indignity,  however  gross,  could  awaken  one  spark  of 
honourable  resentment  in  the  tame  spirit  of  a  Venetian 
noble.     When  insulted,  he  would  be  content  to  whisper  that 
the  aggressor  was  "  t/n'  elefanto ;"  and  to  trust  his  revenge 
to  the  hired  arm  of  a  professed  bravo,  one  of  those  traffick- 
ers in  blood  who  formed  a  well-known  band  ever  ready  to 
employ  the  stiletto  at  a  regulated  price.     The  extreme 
destitution  of  many  of  the  patricians  reduced  them  to  ex- 
pedients always  unworthy,  occasionally  dishonest,  in  order 
to  procure  bare  subsistence;  and  a  foreign  visiter  could 
scarcely  escape  from  the  officious  civilities  forced  upon  him 
by  a  penniless  noble,  without  an  oblique,  and  sometimes 
even  an  open,  solicitation  for  his  bounty.*     The  restriction 

*  In  the  sixteenth  century,  and  perliaps  later,  begging  license*  were 


I  Ssikar  jjfatea.VjKa-.fir'a 


812         FRIGHTFUL   PROFLIGACV   OF    VENICE. 


?i 


which  custom  had  for  the  most  part  imposed  upon  those 
unhappily  privileged  families,  by  seldom  permitting  the 
marriage  of  more  than  a  single  member  in  each,  the  care- 
lessness of  nuptial  fideUty  which  had  superseded  the  former 
proverbial  jealousy  of  Venetian  husbands,  and  the  danger- 
ous facility  with  which  divorce  could  be  obtained,  had 
destroyed  some  of  the  most  powerful  safeguards  of  female 
virtue.  The  courtesans,  who  on  one  occasion  had  been 
publicly  banished  from  the  capital,  were  recalled  by  an 
equally  public  edict, — which  expressed  gratitude  for  their 
services,  assigned  funds  for  their  support,  and  allotted 
houses  for  their  residence.*  And  so  lucrative  became 
their  trade  of  misery  and  dishonour,  that  we  are  told  of 
contracts  formally  authenticated  by  the  signature  of  a  ma- 
gistrate, and  guarantied  by  a  legal  registry,  through  which 
the  yet  unsullied  innocence  of  a  virgin  daughter  was  bartered 
away  by  some  shameless  parent,  dead  to  all  remorse  for  the 
guilt  and  infamy  by  which  she  fed  the  cravings  of  her 
profligate  and  unnatural  avarice.f  Surely  with  a  people 
like  this  the  measure  of  iniquity  was  not  far  from  being 
full! 

But  not  to  dwell  upon  the  crying  wickedness  of  this 
abandoned  city,  we  pass  on  to  the  hour  of  her  visitation. 

LuiGi  Manini,  the  doge  who  reigned  at  the  outbreak 
178ft     ^^  ^^^  French  revolution,  belonged  to  the  lowest 

class  of  nobility  ;  which  then  for  the  first  and  only 
time  obtained  the  sovereignty.  Still  safe,  as  she  imagined, 
in   the  passiveness  which  had  sheltered  her  for   seventy 

officially  granted  to  the  poor  of  noble  blood ;  who,  in  consequence,  as- 
suK.ed  a  particular  dress,  and  walked  abroad  under  the  name  of  /  Ver- 
gognosiy  the  shamefaced.  They  wore  an  old  black  linen  vest,  falling 
to  the  feet ;  the  head  and  face  were  covered  with  a  sort  of  hood,  through 
two  apertures  of  which  the  wearer  could  see  without  being  recognised  by 
others  ;  their  shoes  were  patched,  and  they  carried  in  their  hand  a  paper 
rolled  conically  («n  carfoccio),  in  which  passengers  deposited  their  alms, 
asked  more  by  gestures  than  by  words.  After  the  downfall  of  the  re- 
public, such  of  the  indigent  nobility  as  applied  for  it  received  every  day 
a  miserable  pittance  of  two  Venetian  livres,  not  quite  tenpence  English; 
and  even  that  wretched  stipend  was  diminished  by  the  Austrians. 

*  "  Nostre  benemerite  merelrici."  The  Case  Pampntu.  were  set  apart 
for  them,  whence  the  disreputable  name  Caram;?ana.— Daru.  They 
were  much  employed  as  spies. 

t  Daru,  from  Mayer,  Descript.  ds  Venise,  torn,  ii.;  and  Archenholz, 
Tableau  de  Vltalie,  torn.  i.  ch.  ij. 


BONAPARTE'S    ITALIAN   VICTORIES. 


313 


years,  Venice  disregarded  every  warning  of  the  gathering 
tempest ;  and  remained  inactive,  while  other  states  were 
vigilantly  guVirdhig  against  its  approaches.  Nevertheless, 
her  inclination  in  behalf  of  the  fallen  monarchy  was  not  in- 
distinctly revealed  by  the  marked  honours  which  she  paid 
to  some  of  the  emigrant  princes  while  they  resided  in  her 
capital,  and  by  the  withdrawal  of  her  ambassador  on  the 
establishment  of  the  new  republic.  It  was  not  till  the  over- 
throw of  Robespierre  that  she  renewed  her  diplomatic  inter- 
course with  France  ;  and  then,  by  a  weak  contradiction, 
she  at  the  same  moment  afforded  an  honourable  asylum  in 
Verona  to  the  Comte  de  Lille,  brother  of  the  murdered 
king,  and  admitted  the  entrance  of  a  minister  deputed  by 
the  regicides.  Terrified,  however,  by  the  success  of  the 
French  arms  at  the  close  of  their  first  campaign  in 
Italy,  she  ungenerously  listened  to  the  remonstrances  ,  -qc* 
of  the  Directory,  and  agreed  to  remove  from  her  do- 
minions that  illustrious  exile,  upon  whom,  by  the  more  than 
questionable  death  of  his  unhappy  nephew,  the  crown  of 
France  had  devolved.  "  I  will  quit  your  territories,"  was 
the  dignified  reply  of  the  high-minded  prince  ;  "  but  I  first 
demand  your  Golden  Book,  that  I  may  erase  from  it  the 
name  of  my  family  ;  and  next  the  armour  which  my  ances 
tor  Henry  IV.  presented  as  a  token  of  amity  to  your  re- 
public."* 

The  early  victories  of  Bonaparte  at  Montenotte, 
at  Millesimo,  and  at  Lodi  had  opened  to  him  the  lyng' 
Venetian  territories  in  his  pursuit  of  the  routed 
Austrians  ;  and  his  first  interview  with  a  provveditore,  des- 
patched to  him  at  Brescia  in  order  to  ascertain  his  further 
views,  was  by  no  means  calculated  to  sooth  the  alarm 
created  by  his  invasion  in  the  breasts  of  the  signory.  He 
complained  bitterly  of  their  vacillation,  and  of  their  permit- 
ting the  Austrians,  whom,  if  really  neutral,  they  ought  to 
have  opposed,  to  occupy  the  important  post  of  Peschiera, 
which  had  cost  him  a  battle.  He  announced  that  he  had 
received  orders  from  his  government  to  burn  Verona  ;  and 
that  Massena  was  already  on  his  march  to  execute  that 
stern  purpose,  on  the  very  night  of  their  present  conference. 
This  crafty  menace  produced  the  effect  which  he  desired ; 


)l 


II 


*  Probably  the  sword  worn  at  the  battle  of  Yvry.    Se«  p.  845. 
Vox..  II.— Dd 


314 


CONFERENCES  AT  LEOBEN. 


BLOODY  TUMULT  AT  VERONA. 


315 


1^1 


I  t 


I 


the  gates  of  Verona  were  instantly  opened,  and  the  city  was 
occupied  by  a  French  garrison.  Meantime,  Bonaparte 
amused  the  signory  with  offers  of  alliance,  and  proposed  a 
confederacy  with  France,  the  Porte,  and  Russia,  against 
Austria,  the  common  enemy  of  them  all.  But  Venice  con- 
tinued unmoved  from  her  neutrality  ;  and  the  offer  did  but 
tend  to  confirm  her  in  a  fond  belief  that  the  French  were 
by  no  means  securely  established  in  their  Italian  conquests. 
The  fresh  successes  of  Bonaparte,  on  the  renewal  of  the 
same  memorable  campaign,  must  have  dissipated  that  hope  ; 
yet  hatred  of  the  French  name,  a  reasonable  mistrust  of  the 
smcerity  of  the  negotiator,  a  natural  adherence  to  long-ap- 
proved policy,  and  a  fear  of  the  persevering  enmity  of  Aus- 
tria, if  once  offended,  combined  to  prevent  acceptance  of 
the  former  proposition  when  repeated.  And  although  the 
signory  had  long  since  assembled  troops,  and  maintained  a 
war  establishment,  she  professed  in  reply,  that  peace  and  an 
unarmed  neutrality  were  her  only  objects. 

Nor  were  tenders  of  alliance  wanting  from  another  court, 
equally  opposed  to  the  aggrandizement  of  either  France  or 
Austria  ;  and  perhaps  the  fate  of  Venice  might  have  been 
averted,  if  she  had  not  rejected  advantageous  overtiires  from 
the  Prussian  cabinet,  at  the  close  of  1796.  In  the  suc- 
a7  d.  needing  spring,  the  hard-fought  battle  of  Rivoli  and 
1797.  tne  surrender  of  Mantua  placed  all  Northern  Italy 
withm  the  grasp  of  the  French,  and  compelled  the 
emperor  to  negotiate.  Under  circumstances  thus  unfa- 
vourable to  Venice,  the  conferences  at  Leoben  were  opened  : 
and  during  their  progress,  the  evil  feeling  entertained 
against  her  by  the  Directory  was  plainly  avowed  in  mani- 
festoes. Herdestmy  indeed  was  already  fixed;  and  one  of 
Bonaparte  s  first  communications  with  his  friend  and  sec 
retary  Bournenne,  when  he  joined  him  at  that  moment,  re- 
garded  her  approaching  extinction.  «  Be  at  ease,"  were  his 
remarkable  words  ;  "  those  rogues  shall  pay  for  it ;  their  re- 
public has  hved  !"*  In  March,  a  faction  which  the  intrigues  of 
the  revolutionary  government  had  loner  encouraged  at  Berffa- 
mo,  Brescia,  Salo,  and  Crema,  imboldened  by  the  presence  of 


*  ": 


^vicu^-A^m^'yollcUAl^^^^^^^     ""'  ''  P^'^''^"^'  ^^"^  ^^^"^"'l"^ 


French  troops,  and  stimulated,  ss  there  can  be  little  doubt, 
by  their  commander,  renounced  their  allegiance,  expelled 
their  podesta^  and  erected  municipalities.  To  the  represent- 
ations of  the  signory  concerning  these  insurrections,  Bona- 
parte replied  by  disclaiming  any  share  in  their  production  ; 
and  he  terminated  an  interview  with  the  prorveditoi-e  by  an 
unexpected  demand  of  a  monthly  subsidy  of  a  million  of 
francs.  When  the  envoy  started  with  surprise,  Bonaparte 
reminded  him  that  the  Duke  of  Modena,  a  fugitive  from  his 
own  dominions,  had  deposited  all  his  treasure  in  the  Bank 
of  Venice.  The  confiscation  of  those  funds,  he  said,  would 
afford  a  ready  source  for  payment,  and  they  were  in  truth  the 
actual  property  of  France,  as  the  spoil  of  one  of  her  ene- 
mies. If  this  reasoning  were  not  altogether  conclusive,  the 
w^ords  with  which  he  finished  scarcely  admitted  contradic- 
tion. Taking  the  Venetian  deputy  by  the  arm,  he  added, 
"  Either  your  republic  or  my  army  must  perish  if  you  de- 
cline. Think  well  of  your  decision  ;  and  do  not  hazard 
the  valetudinarian  Lion  of  St.  Mark  against  the  fortune  of 
conquerors,  who  will  find  in  their  hospitals,  and  among 
their  wounded,  sufficient  men  to  cross  your  Lagitne  /"  Two 
hundred  senators  assembled  to  ditcuss  this  demand,  and 
only  seven  balls  opposed  the  concession  ! 

Meanwhile,  the  mountaineers  of  Brescia  and  Bergamo, 
who  still  preserved  their  fidelity,  and  were  goaded  to  des- 
peration by  the  brutal  licentiousness  of  their  invaders,  had 
taken  arms,  and  had  gained  more  than  one  advantage  in  de- 
sultory warfare  against  the  French  detachments.  Some 
inquietude  was  excited  by  these  movements ;  and  Junot 
was  despatched  to  the  signory  with  a  remonstrance  couched 
in  menacing  terms,  which  produced  only  an  evasive  answer. 
A  considerable  force  of  regular  Italian  and  Sclavonian 
troops,  and  a  yet  larger  body  of  armed  peasants,  were  con- 
centrated in  and  about  Verona,  while  the  French  retained 
possession  of  all  its  forts  ;  and  on  the  17th  of  April  a  ca- 
lamitous struggle  occurred  in  that  city.  Amid  the  mani- 
fold causes  of  mutual  irritation  which  existed,  and  the  con- 
flicting statements  of  the  opposite  parties,  it  is  not  possible 
to  decide  upon  which  of  the  two  must  rest  the  blame  of 
prior  aggression  ;  but  in  a  murderous  affray,  which  lasted 
during  the  afternoon  of  the  17th,  the  whole  of  the  inter* 


K 


,ll 


w^ 


:  ■ 


ii 


316     FIERCE  DENUNCIATIONS  BY  BONAPARTE. 

vening  night,  and  many  hours  of  the  following  day,  the 
French,  much  inferior  in  numbers,  were  besieged  in  their 
forts ;  and  nearly  five  hundred  of  them,  scattered  in  sepa- 
rate quarters,  or  lying  in  the  hospitals,  were  put  to  death, 
while  the  citadel  fired  red-hot  balls  upon  the  town  and  its 
infuriated  populace.  This  agitation  continued,  with  more 
or  less  violence,  during  four  days  ;  and  it  was  not  until  the 
arrival  of  a  powerful  reinforcement  from  the  French  hrad- 
quarters,  and  a  simultaneous  announcement  that  prelimina- 
ries of  peace  with  the  emperor  were  signed,  that  the  Vero- 
nese wholly  abandoned  their  hope  of  deliverance,  and  sub- 
mitted in  despair. 

This  tumult  occurred  most  seasonably  for  the  ultimate 
designs  of  Bonaparte.    He  gladly  exaggerated  its  outrages  ; 
and  in  order  to  impress  a  deeper  horror,  he  brought  to  mind 
one  of  the  most  savage  occurrences  in  modern  history,  and 
assimilating  the^  recent  conflict  to  the  Sicilian  Vespers,  he 
named  it  Le.<!  Pdt/ues  Veronaiscs.     Plis  first  question  when 
he  received  the  deputies  through  whom  the  signory  ad- 
dressed explanations  (as  soon  as  the  beginning  cf^the  affray 
at  Verona   was  known,   but   before    either  party  was  ac- 
quainted with  its  issue),  was  an   inquiry  whether  certain 
persons  who  had  been  thrown  into  prison  at  Venice  for  dis- 
seminating revolutionary  opinions,  and  whoso  freedom  he 
had  demanded,  were  yet  released  ]     "  Every  soul,"  he  ex- 
claimed, "  must  be  delivered  :  all  are  friends  of  France. 
If  they  are  not  restored,  I  will  come  in  person,  and  burn 
your  Piombi.     Opinion  must  now  be  free  I"     Then,  inter- 
rupting some  counter  represeniation,  and  pursuing  an  ha- 
rangue evidently  prepared  for  the  occasion,  he  added,  "  If 
all  who  have  outraged  France  are  not  punished,  if  the  pris- 
oners are  not  released,  the  British  minister  dismissed,  the 
population  disarmed,   and  choice  made   at  once  between 
France  and  England,  I  hereby  declare  war  against  you  !    I 
have  eighty  thousand  men  and  twenty  gun-boats.     There 
shall  be  no  more  inquisition  ;  no  more  senate  ;  and  I  will 
prove  another  Attila  to  Venice  !     I  no  longer  oflTer  you  al- 
liance, but   dictation.     I  will  disarm  your  rabble  if  your 
government   has    too  little  power  for  the    purpose;    and 
that   government  is  so  decjrepit  that  it  must  now  fall  to 
pieces !" 


If' 


BONAPARTE  ADVANCES  TO  THE  LAGTJNE.     317 

Before  the  provvediiori  had  taken  final  leave,  they  re- 
ceived a  despatch  from  the  signory  announcing  one  more 
untoward  event,  which  it  was  manifest  would  fearfully  aug- 
ment the  stern,  bitter,  and  vindictive  spirit  already  evinced 
by  Bonaparte.  A  French  vessel  had  been  fired  upon  at 
Lido,  several  of  her  crew,  among  whom  was  Laugier,  her 
captain,  had  been  killed,  and  the  remainder  taken  prisoners. 
Once  again  the  trembling  deputies  obtained  a  conference  ; 
and  the  demands  which  they  carried  back  to  the  capital 
were,  the  surrender  of  the  admiral  commanding  at  Lido,  of 
the  governor  of  its  fort,*  and  of  the  three  inquisitors  of 
state,  in  order  that  they  might  atone,  by  an  exemplary  pun- 
ishment, for  the  French  blood  which  had  been  wantonly 
spilled.  Without  awaiting  a  reply,  Bonaparte  published  an 
indignant  manifesto,  recapitulating  his  causes  of  ofTence 
against  Venice,  and  immediately  advanced  upon  the  Lagvne. 
So  few  are  the  names  demanding  respect  during  the  rapid 
catastrophe  which  followed,  that  we  gladly  relieve  the  tame 
and  inglorious  narrative  by  even  a  single  instance  of  gene- 
rous bearing.  V^'^hen  Bonaparte  entered  Treviso,  on  this 
march,  he  ordered  Angolo  Giustiniani,  its  provvcditore,  to 
quit  the  city  within  two  hours,  on  pain  of  being  shot.  The 
noble  Venetian,  worthy  of  the  illustrious  blood  which  flowed 
in  his  veins,  replied  that  he  depended  solely  upon  his  gov- 
ernment, and  that  he  could  not  abandon  his  post  without 
express  orders  from  the  signory. 

To  oppose  an  invasion  of  her  capital,  Venice  at  that  time 
counted  within  her  own  circuit  nearly  fifteen  thousand 
troops  ;  stores  and  provisions  sufficient  for  eight  months* 
consumption  filled  her  magazines  ;  fresh  water  for  two 
months  was  contained  in  her  reservoirs  on  the  Lido ;  and 
the  sea  was  open  for  a  continued  renewal  of  supplies.  All 
her  ancient  fortresses  were  garrisoned  ;  some  new  works 
had  been  constructed  ;  and  in  the  different  channels  of  ap- 


I 


*  When  the  French  took  possession  of  Venice,  this  officer,  who  had 
acted  under  orders,  was  excluded  from  all  command.  Thus  reduced  to 
poverty,  he  applied,  under  the  Austrian  government,  to  the  emperor,  and 
received  assurances  of  assistance.  He  died,  however,  neglected,  and  in 
misery  ;  and  when  Mr.  Rose  was  in  Venice,  in  1817,  one  of  his  sons  was 
employed  in  piecing  the  tesselated  pavement  in  St,  Mark's.— Z«^ter« 
from  the  J^orth  of  Italy,  ii.  62. 

Dd2 


318 


WEAKNESS  OF  THE  DOGE  MANINI. 


DISSOLUTION  OF  THE  GOVERNMENT. 


319 


M 


t., 


i  \. 


proach  were  distributed  thirty-seven  galleys,  and  one  hun- 
dred and  sixty-eight  armed  barks,  mounting  altogether, 
seven  hundred  and  fifty  cannon,  and  manned  by  eight  thou- 
sand seamen.  This  was  no  insufficient  force  for  the  de- 
fence of  a  city  whose  inhabitants,  twice  before,  when  pent 
within  the  narrow  basin  of  their  waters,  had  broken  forth 
triumphantly  ;  shattering  to  the  dust  the  pride  of  Genoa,  or 
holding  in  check  the  might  of  nearly  all  confederated  Eu- 
rope. But  the  spirit  of  former  ages  had  passed  away  ;  and 
the  gold,  the  sophisms,  and  the  terror  of  France  were  ope- 
rating, each  probably  with  equal  force,  upon  the  treachery, 
the  weakness,  and  the  cowardice  of  the  Venetian  noble's, 
in  acceleration  of  their  ruin. 

It  was  on  the  30th  of  April  that  the  signory  commenced 
their  work  of  self-destruction,  by  summoning  an  extraor- 
dinary assembly  (conferenza)  of  forty-three  of  the  highest 
magistrates,  in  the  private  apartments  of  the  doge ;  thus 
illegally  depriving  the  senate  of  its  constitutional  superin- 
tendence of  state  aflairs.  During  their  sitting,  as  it  grew 
late,  the  port-admiral  announced  that  the  French  were  con- 
structing batteries  on  the  edge  of  the  Lagunc,  and  that  he 
only  waited  orders  from  the  senate  to  destroy  tliem.  How 
ill  adapted  to  such  an  emergency  were  the  hands  in  which 
power  was  deposited  may  be  judged  from  the  words  which 
escaped  the  Doge  Manini  on  opening  that  despatch.  Instead 
of  ordering  an  immediate  attack,  he  turned  pale,  and  stag- 
gering through  the  chamber,  faltered  out,  in  a  tone  of  de- 
spair, "  This  very  night  we  are  by  no  means  sure  of  sleeping 
securely  in  our  beds  !"  Half-measures  only  could  be  ex° 
pected  from  a  temper  thus  miserably  pusillanimous  ;  and  the 
admiral  was  accordingly  instructed,  in  the  same  breath,  to 
prevent  the  continuance  of  the  French  works,  and  to  open 
negotiations  for  an  armistice.  Before  these  orders  reached 
him,  the  sound  of  a  distant  cannonade  informed  the  city 
that  he  had  already  anticipated  the  bolder  part  of  them  on 
his  own  responsibility. 
^  On  the  following  day  consternation  spread  through  the 
city  ;  the  Piazza  was  thronged  with  troops  and  cannon  ; 
the  narrow  streets  were  traversed  by  patroles  ;  and  amid 
this  general  alarm,  the  Grand  Council,  having  received  from 
the  terrified  doge  such  a  report  of  the  condition  of  the  re- 


public as  his  fears  engendered,  decreed  a  fresh  mission  to 
Bonaparte  ;  with  authority  to  consent  to  his  latest  demands, 
— a  modification  in  the  government.  The  envoys  were  re- 
ceived with  fresh  bursts  of  unrestrained  indignation  ;  the 
blood  of  Laugier,  said  the  general,  could  be  washed  away 
only  by  that  of  his  guilty  murderers  ;  and  the  nobles  of 
Venice  should  be  driven  from  their  hearths  to  wander 
abroad  as  destitute  emigrants.  An  armistice  of  six  days, 
which  he  at  length  granted,  afforded  time  for  new  proofs  of 
weakness  and  indecision  in  the  council.  A  few  more  ele- 
vated spirits — and  their  names  ought  not  to  be  forgotten  in 
this  dearth  of  virtue, — Priuli,  Calbo,  Pesaro,  andl  Erizzo, 
were  among  them,  — advocated  resistance  to  the  last  gasp, 
and  would  have  maintained  independence  with  their  lives. 
But  they  were  silenced  contemptuously,  and  denounced  as 
rash,  headlong,  and  ignorant  enthusiasts.  It  was  averred 
that  the  Sclavonian  garrison  had  shown  symptoms  of  insub- 
ordination ;  a  popular  revolutionary  movement  was  declared 
to  be  on  the  very  eve  of  o\'j)losion ;  and  images  of  blood, 
pillage,  and  massacre  floated  before  the  morbid  imagination, 
and  prompted  the  feeble  measures  of  the  bribed  or  infatu- 
ated assembly.  During  another  sitting,  on  the  12th  of 
May,  when  a  few  straggling  musket-shots  were  heard  on 
the  Piazza,  the  confusion  within  the  chamber  became  in- 
stant and  general ;  and  the  nobles,  as  if  cither  not  knowing 
or  not  caring  how  to  fail  with  decency,*  rose  from  their 
seats  with  loud  cries,  "  To  the  vote  !  to  the  vote  !"  The 
urns  were  handed  round  ;  five  hundred  and  twelve  affirm- 
ative balls,  in  opposition  to  twelve  negative  and  five  neutral, 
prostrated  the  republic  at  the  feet  of  the  French  general, 
surrendered  the  capital  at  discretion,  and  proclaimed  that 
the  most  ancient  government  in  the  vyorld,  which  had  just 
completed  the  eleventh  century  of  its  sway,  was  no  longer 
in  existence. 

A  night  of  tumult  and  anarchy  succeeded  ;  and  it  was 
not  till  four  days  afterward  that,  full  preparations  having 
been  made  for  their  admission,  a  Venetian  flotilla  trans- 
ported to  the  Piazzctla  a  division  of  three  thousand  French. 
The  giddy  rabble  saluted  their  conquerors  with  shouts  of 

*  MIEPHN  ttp6voiav  axov  siiax^nus  irecitv 


n 


i-  *''^  ^Mai^ailBSiiaSBiiiSttMLg 


320 


TREATY  OF  CAMPO  FORMIO. 


■u, 


ii 


joy ;  and  the  following  weeks  were  employed  in  some  of 
those  empiric  mummeries  by  which  the  mountebanks  of 
jacobinism  were  wont  to  cajole  the  simplicity  of  their  gap- 
ing and  unsuspicious  dupes.  The  Golden  Book  was  burned 
at  the  foot  of  the  tree  of  liberty,  while  the  patriarch  and  his 
clergy  administered  the  oath  of  fraterni'zation  ;  and  the 
scriptural  legend  on  the  Gospel  held  by  the  Lion  of  St. 
Mark,  having  been  erased,  those  vague  catch-words  of  revo- 
lution, "  the  rights  of  man  and  of  citizenship,"  were  sub- 
stituted in  its  place.  This  change  of  motto  was  not  likely 
to  be  passed  unnoticed  by  the  ready  wit  of  the  careless 
gondoliers  ;  and  one  of  them  remarked,  that  "  the  Lion, 
for  the  first  time,  had  turned  over  a  new  leaf." 

But  the  dream  of  pure  republicanism,  and  of  that  lib- 
erty which  it  was  credulously  supposed  to  bestow,  was  not 
long  to  amuse  the  excited  fancy  of  the  now  conquered  and 
enslaved  Venetians.     The  treaty  of  Campo  Formio  was  an- 
nounced in  October,  and  by  its  terms, — according  to  the  in- 
stitutes of  that  detestable  code  of  robbery  by  which  modern 
pacifications  have  so  frequently  been  disgraced  ;  in  pursu- 
ance of  that  fraudulent  traffic  in  the  rights  of  independent 
nations,  that  mode  of  wholesale  transfer  in  diplomatic  com- 
merce by  which  states  and  kingdoms  are  valued  only  as  a 
kind  of  circulating  medium  in  the  balance  of  political  ac- 
covmts,  and  are  passed  from  hand  to  hand  like  so  many 
bills  of  exchange,  or  parchment  securities, — the  partition  of 
the  Venetian  territory  was  ultimately  arranged.     For  her 
cession  of  the  Low  Countries,  Austria  was  indemnified  by 
Istria,  Dalmatia,  the  city  of  Venice,  and  the  remainder  of 
the  Dos^ado ;  France  claimed  the  Ionian  Islands  ;  and  Ber- 
gamo, Brescia,  and  other  portions  of  Terra  Firma  were  an- 
nexed to  the  short-lived  Cisalpine  republic.     The  French, 
before  their  departure,  as  if  unwilling  to  leave  to  the  people 
whom  they  had  erased  from  separate  and  independent  exist- 
ence any  memorial  which  might  recall  their  former  greatness, 
broke  up  the  Bucentaur,  and  transported  to  Paris,  among  in- 
numerable other  gems  of  art,  the  brazen  horses  recording  the 
glory  of  Enrico  Dandolo.     Their  cupidity  was  disappointed 
in  the  contents  of  the  arsenal :  two  sixty-four  gun  ships,  four 
brigs,  and  a  few  transports  were  all  that  remained  within  its 
basins,  as  ghosts  of  departed  maritime  empire.     It  was  on 


VENICE  SUBJECTED  TO  AUSTRIA.      321 

the  18th  of  January,  1798,  that  the  Austrians  en- 
tered upon  possession  of  their  new  province  ;  and  ^'^ 
transferred  to  their  own  annals, — until  some  fu-  ^*^^' 
ture  revolution  shall  terminate  those  also, — all  that  here- 
after may  be  related  in  connexion  with  the  History  of 
Venice. 


The  Horses  of  St.  Mark's. 


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